The New Demon
by Kutasan
Summary: What would happen if Naruto had found a rock that contained...Venom. Adopted from The Six Paths to Pain. M for language, explosions, Gaara's psychosis and other such things.
1. New Beginnings

OK Kuta here. First off, my Distorting reality story is coming slowly, as you all know. It's going to be a long chapter. That means a LONG wait. Mainly because I'm being forced to write on word pad which has no spell check or anything similar. So I have to check everything (pretty much anyway) for errors without the help of software... A tedious process that.

Secondly I adopted this story from The Six Paths to Pain and need to clear some things up.

This is MY version of the story. Put it through some major overhauls. Fixed some things, put in some details and such. Kyuubi will NOT die, because it didn't make much sense to me. Why- if Venom feeds off of energy- would he COMPLETELY absorb the Kyuubi when it could sate it's hunger on a ninth of it's power an then let it regenerate? It could know this by reading the Kyuubi's mind like it did Peter Parker's (I reason that if Kyuubi is sealed in Naruto, then Venom could read it's mind as well since Kyuubi is linked to Naruto's mind (which is why he- read: Venom- shows up in the mindscape)) also Naruto will have all of Venom's spider abilities, as well as a minor-ish bloodline and even more massive chakra reserves, from both more intensive training and from Venom boosting his naturally large chakra reserves.

For those of you who don't know Venom is a symbiotic space organism from Spider-man that takes ones natural abilities and amplifies by a factor of like 20, or so I guess ( too lazy to actually look it up.) So if you can naturally lift 100 pounds with ease, it makes you able to easily heft a full ton. When suited up like Venom can do anyway, passive is more like a factor of eight or so.

So that takes all of Naruto's senses and makes them 8-20 times better, which is insane considering that in my story just having Kurama's chakra running through him and purified made his senses better by a factor of five already (which equals senses that are 40-100 times better than a normal human.) His strength (also already augmented by a factor of five which made him able to lift things he SHOULDN'T have been able to) is also a rough 8-20 times better, his speed is 8-20 times better, and unlocks his Kekkai Genkai and then amps it up quite substantially. Perhaps not the best thing for him though all things considered.

Anyway... Haku died but I always wanted to make a HakuXLee Fic... It could work... Naruto doesn't yet know of the Venom, and thinks it's all Kurama, but Kurama is basically a side figure now.

One more note... Naruto's outfit looks like a black version of Vayne Solidor's from FF12 only minus the stuff on his chest and biceps and with cargo's for carrying scrolls and the like. His fighting style is also like Vayne's.. Before the super lame ultra muscles. Very fluent but also brutal in it's power.

Okay onto the chappy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Spiderman, nor do I _technically own_ the idea for this story. If I were to publish the idea for this story I would own it, but as it is now, I do not. The same applies to any OC's I may incorporate into the fic.

* * *

The New Demon

**Chapter One- New Beginnings:**

It was a fine day and Konoha was celebrating the six year anniversary of the fall of the Kyuubi. Most of the village was in a good mood, happy for any real reason to get shit-faced.

That is, until they realized that the 'Kyuubi-Brat' wasn't anywhere to be found... which meant he was probably alone, outside of the Sandaime's influence. Vulnerable... this made them even happier.

* * *

Forest Outside Konoha

Ten year old Naruto was in the forest training, mostly the taijutsu he didn't know was flawed at a fundametal level since he'd already... _put off_,not given up on, his ninjutsu training. _"Man I'm tired."_ He thought once he'd finished, he'd been at it in this forest for what felt like a week- in reality it was six and a half hours. He heard a bang and saw the fireworks that he knew the meaning of._ "The Festival was today. That means I'm eleven now. Maybe the villagers will be nice to me now?"_ He thought without much hope.

He trudged further into the woods, seeking the shelter that experience had taught him he would need to survive the night unharmed. He came across a cave, with an obsidian floor and numerous granite stalactites and stalagmites- Naruto didn't know enough of geology to tell that it wasn't a typical cave in Hi no Kuni- lacking granite walls and veins of quarts in those walls (or really anything of geology at all), that seemed safe enough to him.

_"Wonder what's in here?"_ He thought to himself, not questioning the caves odd formation. _"Never came this way before... Maybe I can hide here when the villagers get mad."_ Lighting his only flare so he could see, Naruto went in to the cave happily- indeed he was nearly skipping along. He came across a black stone on an altar-like shape about five minutes into the dead black cave, only his flare allowing him to notice it out of the corner of his eye. _"What's that thing?"_ He thought. "_An alter to some kind of sports god? Or maybe it's like that orb thingy that the Old Man has and says I shouldn't touch?"_

Naruto touched the stone and picked it up when he didn't see it do anything, he had thought it might because it looked like the thing the Old Man used to look at stuff from far away. As he held it, he noticed some black goo pooling at his feet, but ignored it as it looked like water dripping from the top of the cave onto the cold black ground. The goo slid up his leg and melded into his skin, though he never even noticed because it didn't set off any nerves. Naruto felt a slight burning in his leg after a while and figured his muscles must be sore from training.

* * *

In the Mindscape: Kurama's Cage

Kurama roared as he attempted once more to break free from his prison. Needless to say, he failed rather spectacularly. As he prepped himself for one more go, he took notice of a sudden and unexpected blackening of the walls outside the cage.

This would happen from time to time, as the boy was put in mortal danger fairly often. However, it was always preceded by a period in which the area warmed up and Kurama could feel a dramatic increase in the boys dark emotions, sadness, anger, fear, etc. Thus this sudden darkening was unprecedented.

Suddenly the blackness coalesced into a single four foot diameter circle, which then proceeded to grow into a large vaguely humanoid shape made of black goo. _"Give me energy."_ The goo spoke.

At this, the Kurama froze. _'This being feeds on energy?'_ He thought, with a curious gleam in his eye. _'Maybe I can convince it to drain the seal...'_

The goo spoke again. _"I could... Kurama... But honessstly, you are a much bigger energy sssource... And the ssseal keepsss you from resssisssting... Also usssing you asss a sssource would keep me from having to drain thisss hossst dry... After all, you would jussst keep regenerating what I absssorb... Which keepsss me from having to find a new hossst. And that isss quite annoying, ssso... Bon appétit."_

The goo closed in on the chakra construct, preparing to feed and Kurama roared his outrage, how dare this... Thing do this to him? The mighty Kurama, Kyuubi no Kitsune himself? Then the goo began to feed, and the fox blacked out, hearing the goo's parting words. _"Venom'sss the name, don't forget it."_

* * *

Back to Naruto

Naruto smiled happily as he walked to Ichiraku Ramen for breakfast, his cave adventure over with and the town back to mostly normal, hoping the villagers would be nice to him on the day after his birthday for once. "Hey Teuchi-jiji! One Ultimate Miso Ramen bowl please!" Naruto yelled as he entered.

Old man Ichiraku laughed and hurried to cook his favorite customers dish of choice. His daughter, Ayame, stood by Naruto. "So, how was your day yesterday, nothing bad happened did it?" she asked.

"No, it was more or less good. I trained some more and found a good place to hide in the forest next year." Naruto said, to which Ayame smiled nodded, relieved that the boy was okay.

"Food's ready!" Ichiraku said after a few minutes of listening to the boy idly chatter with his daughter. He gave the bowl to Naruto, who proceeded to inhale it as per usual while carrying on a conversation with Ayame and Teuchi.

Naruto then felt some pain shoot through him, originating from his gut, which for a second made him hesitate in eating, drawing Ayame's and Teuchi's attention. He finished his ramen anyway, thinking that he just hungry, before reassuring them that all was fine. "See ya Ayame-neechan. See ya jiji!" Naruto shouted as he left. Naruto walked home, oblivious to what was happening within his body. Oblivious to what that one encounter in a cave- an encounter that he was unaware of- would mean to rest of the world.

* * *

Two years and seven months later: Chuunin Exam Stadium, Konohagakure no Sato

"Will Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji please stay on the arena floor? Everyone else up to the contestant booth in the stands." Shiranui Genma said as he chewed on a senbon needle.

The Chuunin Exams were underway once more after a month long pause and Naruto and Neji were on the floor, themselves for the upcoming fight. Neji began telling him of how he was a genius of the Hyuuga clan, unmatched in his age group, how Naruto had no chance. "Fool. You are destined to lose." Neji spat. Naruto smirked at this, the poor bastard thought he could win, thought Naruto was just some nobody. Ever since he was eleven, Naruto had taken his training and education much more seriously, even changing the clothes he wore to more ninja-ish attire, and actually listening to Iruka-sensei.

Even going to the library, and actually to read.

He now wore a pair of black cargo's with many pockets under some heavy shin guards that also covered his feet, a black undershirt with a tailed overcoat, which had some light armor sewn into the inside, and some heavy bracers. He was no dead-last anymore He was ranked just below Aburame Shino at third in his class. "You are nothing but a dobe." Neji said.

Naruto smiled. "Thank you! That really helps a guys self esteem, throwing a title at him that he didn't graduate with. Unfortunately for you, this loser is going to kick your ass!" Naruto said as he made a familiar hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Four clones this time, a test of Neji's skill.

Neji activated his Byakugan. 'Fool. I can tell wh- Huh? Their chakra systems are all identical! Even the amount of chakra they have is perfectly, exactly the same! And they have so damn much!' Still he figured that a guy like Naruto would either run at him head on or stay back while his clones did the work.

As one all the Naruto's except the original ran forward with a heavy haymaker or spinning axe kick... At speeds that Neji couldn't quite keep up with. The Naruto clones launched a series of heavy blows at Neji, mostly using the force from their first heavy blows to speed up their next ones.

However, just as it seemed like Neji was done for, he frowned and started to spin during one of the short breaks between attacks, giving himself enough momentum to start off his-

"Hakkeshou: Kaiten!" He called out expelling chakra from all of his tenketsu. Naruto and his clone were thrown off him as Neji's chakra dome expanded. Naruto's clones poofed out of existence as they impacted the ground. Neji took advantage of both his opponents proximity and his distance and ended his Kaiten.

Realizing that he couldn't afford to hold back against his opponent, that he was much stronger than the Hyuuga prodigy had given him credit for, Neji dropped into a different stance. "You are in range of my Divination." He called out, causing quite a stir among his Main Family relatives, before quickly rushing in. Naruto's curiousity kept him from reacting, as he was a bit cocky.

"Jyuukenhou Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!" Neji called out causing Hyuuga Hiashi to freeze. How had a Branch member learned such a high level skill without tutoring? "Hakke Nishou," Neji announced while attacking and closing off two of Naruto's tenketsu with two strikes from his finger tips. "Yonshou," This time he closed off four different tenketsu. "Hachishou," Eight now. "Juurokushou," Sixteen. "Sanjuunishou," Thirty-two tenketsu. "Rokujuuyonshou!" Neji struck sixty four more times for a grand total of one-hundred and twenty-six strikes. Each to a different tenketsu.

Naruto collapsed to the ground, beaten and bruised, semi-conscious. After all, even if he was stronger than Neji, he did have limits, and Neji had taken advantage of his surprise from that chakra dome. Neji began to speak. "You see, Fate has declared me the winner. Even if you had abilities that could defeat me, you would still be unable to, because you are a loser and I am a genius." Neji then told Naruto of the curse that he claimed Fate had handed him, and how his father had been killed to keep his uncle Hiashi alive. "Proctor call the match, that dobe isn't getting up."

Upon hearing this, Naruto's brain went into over-drive. "_I'm losing?"_ He thought. "_To this asshole? No... I refuse this... I will not lose here, not to him. I've beaten people stronger than him, and that means that he isn't capable of winning against me... I will not lose... Not after beating her..."_

* * *

_Flashback:_

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke were standing on the incomplete bridge Tazuna had built, surrounded by mirrors of ice, panting, exhausted, outclassed by an overwhelmingly superior opponent. They both had numerous needles of ice embedded in them. Their opponent was Haku, the ice maiden that was apprenticed to Momochi Zabuza, A-rank nuke-nin and formerly the Demon of the Bloody Mist.

Sasuke was standing in front of Naruto, having just taken a seemingly fatal blow for him. "Sasuke…" Naruto said, brokenly, not sure why someone who claimed to hate him would do something so self-sacrificial for him of all people. "Why?"

"My body... Just moved on its... Own, loser." Sasuke said haltingly, the strain of talking obvious on his face. "Promise me, Naruto... Promise me... That you will take care of... My ambition... You're the... Only one I... Feel I can trust it... To..."

"Sure thing, Teme, that murserous ass is as good as dead, the ultimate promise." Naruto said with tears in his eyes, watching as seemed Sasuke smiled in content while also seeming to to drop dead. Naruto clutched his fallen teammate's body and howled in emotional turmoil, still somewhat conflicted about how he should feel about the boy he had felt both an intense dislike and a sort of subdued... He supposed it could only be a sort of brotherly affection for.

"Is it the first time you've seen a teammate die?" Haku asked. "It's always very difficult... But you will move on, should you survive. It would be the only way he'd be at peace"

But Naruto wasn't listening to her, he was demanding power from the fox, not knowing that the fox was no longer the one with whom he should speak. But the Venom heard him, and decided to make Kurama give the boy a boost, lest he be subjected a premature feeding. "You…" Naruto said quietly, breathing erratically before a dark chakra began to swirl around him. His hair grew shaggier and his nails became claws, his eyes turned blood red. **"I'LL KILL YOU!"** He continued in a demonic roar before smashing the mirror she was in, sending her flying.

* * *

_End_

* * *

"I WON'T LOSE TO YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Naruto screamed in rage as he forced himself to stand, gasping for breath and trembling slightly, still very much injured from Neji's attack.

"You shouldn't be able to stand." Neji said, utterly perplexed as to how Naruto was able to stand up at all after all of those hits from a Jyuuken user.

Naruto coughed up some blood and chuckled a bit, honestly morbidly amused by that statement. "I do the impossible, Neji. It's who I am." He said. Naruto couldn't move, though, he was too exhausted. But then he felt something, some power welled up inside him, invigorating him. And he remembered, all the beatings, the curses thrown at him, the cruel, vicious, savagery of the villagers and how they had taunted him as the tortured him in his younger years. This fueled an anger in him so profound that he could feel pinpricks of pain in his very skin. But what he didn't know was that the goo was resurfacing, coating his skin under his clothes and making the Kyuubi pump some youki into him, empowering him beyond anything but Tsunade's own super strength technique.

"I'm going to kill him." Neji said, oblivious to Naruto's new-found power. The examiner made no move to stop him so Neji ran towards Naruto, ready to kill with a single Jyuuken strike to the heart. But then something he didn't expect happened, Neji felt something grab him after no more than five steps. He looked to his arm to find a somewhat psychotic looking Naruto gripping it, his hair even more of a rat's nest than it had been, and his nails... Were they longer? His eyes were what Neji feared the most though, red irises, hellish and angry with a sadistic glint that bode the young Hyyuga no good fortune.

Naruto hurled Neji into the stadium wall with enough force to imprint him there and not need to secure it. Neji opened his eyes slightly, in too much pain to try to look for Naruto. But that wasn't necessary, Naruto was walking up to him from the front, with a crazed and slightly maniacal look in his blood-red eyes.

Naruto stopped, head down facing the ground, he chuckled a little as his head came up. His eyes were back to being blue now. "Loser. Dobe. Moron. Demon. Hell spawn. Monster. Murderer. Abomination. Freak. All my life, the people of this village have called me these things." He said, still angry and getting more hysterical by the word, finally seeming to have snapped. "You have no idea what my life was like! I had assassination attempts in my bed when I was four, and I fucking remember them! The villagers did all they could to kill me, poisons, knives, beatings, broken bones, burning, even a partial beheading once, before they were stopped! But I persevered! _I_ _SURVIVED_!" He said yelled. The whole stadium could hear him, he was making sure of it.

A kunai was thrown at Neji, piercing right through his left lung, the pain... The Hyuuga couldn't describe it... Breathing, impossible. But still Neji screamed and writhed, silently begging Naruto not to do anything rash, but too busy screaming to say it aloud. Naruto chuckled in a more than slightly insane manner. "The villagers did that to me when I was five. How's it feel? Does it _HURT_ a bit? Hoo, I bet it does. I mean not that I'd know anything about pain or suffering, right? After all," Naruto chuckled again, and Neji was really starting to find it unnerving. "Aren't I the idiot, the fool, the loser who doesn't know the feeling of being marked for something at birth through no fault of his own? WELL?_ AREN'T I_?" Naruto roared at the end, though had again made sure that the whole stadium had heard him all the way through.

The ninjas watching were either pleased with the kids ruthlessness and ability, or in shock that the happy-go-lucky little boy they had known could turn into this... Sadistic, anger driven fiend, that he had had this kind of rage hidden in his heart all this time. Some civilians were even a little uncomfortable, knowing that they had contributed to this... Or even feeling guilty. The latter was a minority, though, because most of the civilians were scared now, scared that the demon would come after _them_ for his well deserved vengeance- not that they'd admit that they deserved it, on the whole. Naruto drew a kunai and drew his arm back, ready to stab Neji in the heart.

* * *

A/N: Well, now, ain't I a stinker? Cliffy! Anyone who spots the bleach reference that is somewhere in this chappy gets a cyber-cookie! And I Mean, ANYWHERE. A/N's included. Partial Hint: soul.

Anyway, there's the first chapter... and that's all I have to say about that...

Edit: I fixed it up further. Be happy.


	2. A Fight and the Invasion

Okay, Kuta is back for a new update. I'm updating again this quick because the foundation for this chapter was already laid out, which equals win and a faster update_._

Jutsu/ Translations (Literal)-

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu- Shadow Clone Technique: Creates clones of solid chakra, disperses with a moderately strong hit, sends any information learned to creator.

Hakkeshou: Kaiten- Eight Trigrams Palms: Revolving Heaven: A Hyuuga only technique that expels large amounts of chakra from all the body's tenketsu, or chakra points (which are the only areas from which chakra can leave the body) simultaneously, while spinning. This creates an impenetrable dome of chakra around the user. (Warning: May cause extreme dizziness if any other than a Hyuuga were to attempt.)

Jyuukenhou: Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou- Art of the Gentle Fist: Divine Sixty-Four Strikes: A Hyuuga only attack where the user attacks one-hundred and twenty-six of the three-hundred and sixty-one tenketsu on the human body (Warning: your arms will hurt from moving them so damn fast.)

Nishou- Two strikes: first two strikes of Jyuukenhou: Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou. VERY simple. Two strikes, two closed tenketsu.

Yonshou- Four strikes: next four strikes of Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou.

Hachishou- Eight strikes: next eight strikes of Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou.

Juurokushou- Sixteen strikes: the nest sixteen strikes of Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou.

Sanjuunishou- Thirty-two strikes: the next thirty-two strikes of Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou.

Rokujuuyonshou- Sixty-four strikes: the next sixty-four strikes of Hakkeshou Rokujuuyonshou.

Kuchiyose no Justu- Summoning Technique: Summons an animal of the species that you signed a summoning scroll for. The amount of chakra used determines the strength of the summon you used. Naruto signed the toad scroll, meaning that with a small blood sacrifice he can summon normal sized to small-mountain sized sentient toads that can use chakra. And weapons. And other.

Jyuuken- Gentle Fist: Taijutsu style (hand-to-hand combat style) used only by the Hyuuga clan in Konohagakure no Sato, focuses on precision strikes to the tenketsu on the body, they use it in combination with a special way of molding chakra that forces foreign chakra into a tenketsu, temporarily closing it. This prevents chakra use by stopping chakra flow. Also numbs the limbs.

Goken- Strong Fist: A Taijutsu style used by Maito Gai and Rock Lee of Konohagakure no Sato, very fast and focuses on hard hits to shatter bones. (Insane training methods required for effective use.)

Fukusuu no Heiga wo Kage Bun'ya- Multiple Swords of the Shadow Realm: A sword style that Gekko Hayate knows but rarely uses, preferring the Wangetsutsuki no Mai (I'm sure that this is incorrect, but the second 't' starts off the word moon, and wangetsu means crescent and over all it means Dance of the Crescent Moon.), the former uses high speeds and multiple Kage Bunshin to attack from many angles, cutting off an enemy's retreat, forcing to either take the hit, or wear themselves out from dodging.

Ninpo: Dai Endan Toppa- Ninja Art: Great Fire Bullet Breakthrough: Naruto summons Gamabaku an armored fire-breathing toad to shoot of a flame that he then enhances with a Fuuton: Daitoppa, very destructive at full power.

Fuuton: Daitoppa- Wind Release: Great Breakthrough: one uses hand seals to convert their normal chakra to wind natured chakra and breathes it out in a powerful gust of wind, capable of blowing people away and leveling small forests and buildings.

Dobe- Deadlast

Teme- Bastard

Chan- Endearing honorific, usually used with women or very young boys.

Shousha- Victor in a duel or sanctioned fight.

* * *

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto or Marvel comics.

Chapter 2- A Fight, and the Invasion

Gaara smiled maniacally upon hearing Naruto's rant, this one was special... Potentially a fellow container. That would make for a grand battle, one that would assure him and the world of his existence for years to come...It would be the ultimate rush.

Temari noted the glint in Gaara's eyes, and she didn't like it. The damned Shukaku was destroying her little brother, and she wanted that brother back, badly. She moved closer to him as a way to try and show him that she cared, without saying as much- Gaara hadn't taken it well when she had once tried that route. As a way to offer moral support to her poor, deranged sibling.

Kankuro was just scared of him and tried to move away surreptitiously.

"Stop trying to be cool, Naruto-baka, you've never been stabbed in the lung." Sakura said, more to herself than anyone else. But Naruto heard her, as did Ino and Kakashi.

"Sakura," Said a voice from behind her. She jumped, startled, and turned to see who was talking to her. It was Naruto- or a clone- who then proceeded to wrap a hand around her neck. "Shut up, you weak, vapid, useless, fangirl bitch." She was now struggling to breath and touch the ground, as Naruto was holding her up in the air one-handed. Kakashi was slowly getting to his feet, and seeming to be readying himself to bring Naruto down if he had to. "You don't know me at all, so don't even try that shit with me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an arrogant ass of a Hyuuga prodigy to deal with. Though, if you talk to me in so presumptuous a manner again, you'll be next." And then he let her go, causing her to crumple to the floor, and dispersed to show that he was a clone.

Then he turned back to face Neji, the whole encounter had taken less then ten seconds. "As for you... _'Fate?'_ Who gives a shit? So your daddy died? Same for a ass-load of other people's parents. So it was for political reasons? What, do you think you're the only one? So Hinata was kidnapped and that's why? What? Was she supposed to kill a fully grown and trained Kumo-nin as a three year old with minimal to no ninja training? Why take it out on her? So you have a seal on you that marks you as a 'lesser person?'... Me too."

A few people were surprised to hear that Naruto even knew of the seal, let alone the Kyuubi, which they assumed from his words that he did. "Only I'm not allowed to talk about mine, so I don't even have the option of venting like you do. You honestly ought to be grateful Neji. Now, I'm gonna tell you a little story about me, one you probably won't believe because I've beaten you- unless the Hokage himself tells you about it. I failed the academy twice, because there was a technique that I just couldn't get, no matter how much I tried. It just wouldn't come out right. So I failed. And I was labeled a dobe... That technique... It was the Bunshin no Jutsu. Just a regular illusionary Bunshin. And now..." He didn't even make a hand seal, just gathered his chakra and did the technique. "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" A smoke plume filled the stadium and a little of the surrounding area.

When it cleared the stadium floor, the stairs, hallways, bathrooms, balconies and even the stadium wall tops and roofs, all were filled to bursting with hundreds of Kage Bunshin. "Now this doesn't even faze me. Neji, if even I, the loser who couldn't even make a single Bunshin can ascend to this level... Then why can't you do the same and rise above the station you were born to, and change the way your family does things? And once I become Hokage... I'll help you. You and Hinata-chan both..." Naruto Turned away from and walked to the middle of the arena before facing him and saying. "Now get up! We've a fight to finish."

Neji pulled away from the wall with a grunt. The worst of the pain was gone and he could fight again. As they dropped into their respective fighting stances, and old man in the Kage's Box worried about the mental stability of his surrogate grandson. These rapid mood swings were indicative of either a mental breakdown on his part, due to extreme childhood abuse; or that the Kyuubi was attempting to alter Naruto's mind in a bid for freedom... A mentally unstable Naruto would be easier to manipulate after all.

Sarutobi soon re-focused on the fight to see Naruto once again in a position of Taijutsu superiority. He marveled at Naruto's extreme improvement, it was like in the course of two years he had packed in Gai's strength and speed training with a combination of Goken and Jyuuken and Hayate's Fukusuu no Heiga wo Kage Bun'ya sword style, using Kage Bunshin to attack from so many angles that the opponent can't block them all let alone find an opportunity to attack even if they could follow your movements. High speed, high power Taijutsu attacks to vulnerable areas, it was easily lower end Jounin level taijutsu. It was impressive to a ridiculous degree that a Gennin could do something like this, especially one only a six or so months out of the academy. And according to Jiraiya, he could even summon the toad boss, Gamabunta. That was a lot of power in a Jounin's hands, let alone a Genin's...

What was insane though, was that he was also implementing an actual strategy- herding Neji into an unfavorable position. If the boy showed any more ability in any of the various fields of ninja study that vest was his, no matter what the Council might say. It would be out of his hands because the Jounin got to vote on the matter, and most of them didn't actually hate Naruto like his former team and rivals seemed to.

* * *

Naruto spun into a new kick using the momentum from the heavy punch that Neji had just dodged. The kick landed, striking him in the ribs as one of his three clone that were still around swept Neji's feet out from under him. Naruto took this opportunity to raise his other leg up and axe kick him into the ground. Neji took this time to close off some of his tenketsu. Naruto felt his leg go numb and jumped back and let his clones distract Neji a bit, so as to bite his thumb and perform a set of handseals. That set was Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Ram. He then slammed his hand to the ground while calling out-

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" The was a large poof of smoke and when it cleared, Naruto was standing atop a sixteen foot bright red toad in a grey yakuza jacket with metal plating over it's chest, abdomen, shoulders and back. "Yo, Gamabaku, I need to light this place up a bit, can you provide a light flame?" Naruto asked as Neji gaped.

The toad, presumably Gamabaku, smirked a little. "Not any kind of a problem, Naruto. Just point me in the right direction." Naruto pointed at Neji.

"Medium well when a Daitoppa is added 'Baku." Naruto said. The toad made some handseals and inhaled deeply, chest expanding, and blew out a stream of fire at Neji which didn't look to be able to reach him. But then Naruto made some more handseals. "Ninpo: Dai Endan Toppa!" He called out before breathing out a Fuuton: Daitoppa at the fire stream, turning it into a high speed, raging inferno of '_Holy shit **MOVE**!'_ Needless to say, Neji dodged... Into a Naruto clone's fist to his temple.

Neji was out cold.

"Shousha, Uzumaki Naruto." Genma called out, highly surprised at the elemental combination jutsu... And the summon.

At first, the people in the stadium were dead silent. Then, slowly, they started to clap, quietly at first, then louder and louder with cheers thrown in until they were roaring in approval of the amazing fight they had just witnessed.

As they clapped, Naruto began to twitch a bit, like he was really annoyed or pissed off. Then, he seemed to shrug it off, and turned with a big smile towards the stands!_ 'I showed them,'_ He thought. '_Now they realize that I'm amazing and they won't be able to hurt me any more... I've risen above them.'_ He waited respectfully for the medics to reach Neji and himself, render their verdict and say he could leave and then headed up to the participants box to wait for his next match.

When he got there he decided that he didn't want to have to wait for Kakashi-sensei to bring the Teme along, so he lay down and tried to nap... For all of two minutes. He soon heard Nara Shikamaru complain about how troublesome it was to have to fight a girl and how he really didn't want to. This irked Naruto, quite a lot actually. So he got up from his make-shift bed and walked over to Shikamaru. "Hey, Shika, my bud... Get the hell down there a fight you chauvinistic prick. Or I make you." Naruto said quietly. "Or worse yet, I'll tell Gaara that if he fights you here and now, I'll fight him as well." This made Shikamaru comply, rather quickly, even going so far as to jump over the railings and down to the arena floor.

Naruto then went back to his nap while asking Shino to wake him when Sasuke got there, unaware that Gaara was now eying Shikamaru contemplatively.

* * *

When Naruto was awoken by Shino the first thing he noticed was that the crowd was being _tooo_ fucking loud. This made him look to the arena floor wondering what about the fight was making them so damn loud. It was Sasuke, running down a wall, with a... Ball of lightning in his his hand? Seriously? Now the Teme had Kakashi-sensei's _only_ original jutsu in his arsenal as well? Bullshit...

As Naruto looked around for Gaara, he noticed the huge ball of what appeared to be sandstone in the center of the arena floor. Gaara must have been in their because then Sasuke plunged his hand through it. It was then that all hell broke loose. A sixth sense that Naruto had developed at some point started going off, alerting him to the Genjutsu that was being used. He quickly dispelled it before he heard Gaara screaming about his blood.

Must have been hard for him, having never experienced pain before, to go through the almost assuredly agonizing pain that a ball of lightning tearing through your shoulder must cause. It would probably set him on an angry rampage... Then he heard the explosion, from the direction of the Kage's Box. He quickly looked over there and saw his Jiji being hauled away by the Kazekage at kunai point. Before he could rush to try to help him, he was held back by Kakashi, "Listen, Naruto," He said when Naruto struggled. "I need you to take Shikamaru and Sakura and go after Sasuke, as soon as that explosion went off Gaara bolted with his siblings and Sasuke went after him. " Naruto calmed down a bit, a mission like that was rare, and Naruto could use the brownie points he'd get with the village if he was successful. Kakashi seemed relieved, it was hard to hold Naruto back, he was too damn strong for his age. And size... And weight... And build. "Here, I'll help you out with it a bit," He made some handseals and placed his hand on the ground. A poof of smoke appeared and when it cleared there was a small pug in a blue vest with a Konoha hitai-ite wrapped around his head. "Naruto, this is Pakkun, Pakkun, Naruto."

The pug raised it's paw, "Yo."

Naruto stared for a brief second. "Hey."

"Now Pakkun, I need you to help Naruto find Sasuke, you remember his smell from our training right?" Kakashi said to which the pug nodded.

Soon thereafter Naruto was springing through the trees in pursuit of Sasuke with Sakura trailing slightly behind, Pakkun by his side. Shikamaru had opted to distract the enemy shinobi that had been tracking them with an ambush, much to Naruto's displeasure. Still, Naruto could see the logic in Shikamaru's reasoning. Didn't mean he had to like it, so he sent a few clones to back Shikamaru up in case he got ambushed too- an ambush in case an ambusher got ambushed by an ambush... They were gaining quickly and had managed to cut the distance between them and Sasuke down by seventy-five percent when Pakkun called out. "Wait, he's stopped and there is a strange scent in the air. Tanuki if I'm not mistaken, along with a weird, abnormally thick variety of chakra. The opponent will be sure to be dangerous."

Naruto heard this and said, "That's probably Sabaku no Gaara. I believe he may be another one of those, like me." He said, careful to skirt the word Jinchuuriki as Sakura was around. Pakkun nodded.

"In that case, Sakura should stay back here, she wont be able to handle this kind of thing." The little pug said, much to the ire of a certain pink-haired kunoichi. "You can summon Gamabunta, can you not Naruto?" He added in query. Naruto nodded. "Good then, I would ask that should certain... Things manifest that you summon him with all due haste."

Naruto and Pakkun then proceeded through the forest alone, until they came across a barely conscious Sasuke being pinned to a tree by Gaara. But this was not the worrisome part. What was, was that Gaara was coated from the waist up in his sand, and had taken on a form rather reminiscent of a Tanuki. Naruto quickly realized that regular taijutsu would be ineffective against so heavily armored an opponent, and that he would have to go for a fast, powerful Ninjutsu to try to knock him out. That was when Naruto's fellow Jinchuuriki's blond sister, looking beaten and burned, dropped down beside him and said. "Wait! Don't go over there, my brother is going to go crazy!"

To this Naruto simply said. "Yeah which is why I gotta go over there and knock his ass out before he goes psycho on my teammate." This garnered a frantic gasp from her which made him reconsider his plan. "Unless there is some reason that I shouldn't? Perhaps to do with his demon? Shukaku I would imagine, from Suna's history." Temari gasped.

She nodded. "If he goes to sleep or unconscious at all, the Ichibi can take complete control. He'll be able to walk free by controlling the sand." Naruto sighed in exasperation.

"Well, that clears that up." He said. "How the hell am I supposed to beat him then?" He asked rhetorically.

She thought about that for a second and Naruto was going to tell not to answer when she stated. "Well... When Gaara is up against a _really_ strong opponent, he sometimes puts himself to sleep, with a Genjutsu, should you knock him out of that he might think that you're too strong to beat and back down... Though that's never happened." Temari answered.

"Heh... Thanks Temari... That's a plan I can get behind." Naruto replied. "Pakkun, go back to Sakura and tell her to steer clear of the area, this is gonna be big."

Pakkun went off to do just that, and Temari moved closer. "Hey... Just... If you manage to do this... Don't kill him... Okay?"She pleaded, her desperation plain to see. Naruto just nodded.

He leaped from the tree and spin kicked Gaara in the face, launching Gaara back into a tree on the opposite side of the mini-clearing they stood in. "Now now, Gaara," Naruto said in a tone similar to a parent scolding a child. "Don't play with emo's, you don't know what kind of diseases they might have. Why, you could end up with A.I.D.S., or worse yet, fangirls." Gaara growled at Naruto as he stood up and ignored the taunt, swinging his arm forward, launching a barrage of sand shuriken at the blond prankster. Naruto, however saw this coming and dodged to the left and rushed forward and swept Gaara's feet from beneath him before switching to his other foot to kick Gaara into the air.

Naruto then made 14 clones and had them all pull out four kunai with explosive tags wrapped around their handles. He then chuckled a bit bitterly. "These kunai may not be of the highest quality, same with the explosive tags, but they will still ensure some damage." He said and they all threw their kunai at Gaara and waited for the explosion.

The kunai all hit their target and the tags fizzled out almost immediately afterward, then they exploded, not only burning Gaara rather severely in the exposed areas, but pelting his entire body with white hot, razor sharp shrapnel. Gaara screamed in agony, though no one could here it over the noise of the explosion. When he landed he stayed down for a bit before slowly getting up and grinning maniacally. **"You really are a worthy opponent, Uzumaki Naruto. Your death will definitely make my feel _alive_**." He rasped with psychotic glee as he launched a volley of what looked to be sand javelins at him.

Naruto and his clones all ducked again, of course, and rushed forward with a barrage of punches and kicks, most of which were blocked by Gaara's sand arm. It was then that Naruto realized that with with his sand covering his body it couldn't protect him as a moving wall, only as a thick coat of armor. He was as yet unsure as to how he could benefit from that, but he knew he could.

Naruto spent the next several minutes trying to land a decisive blow that would force Gaara to use Shukaku's power more freely or even force himself asleep, but he seemed unable to do so. Soon enough though, Gaara spoke. **"Where is it, Uzumaki? Where is your ruthlessness? Your fire? Your killing intent? This isn't a fight that can excite me! Show me the fire that you displayed in your fight with the Hyuuga!"** He yelled as he flung Naruto away and dispelled his clones. **"COME ON SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN REALLY DO!"**

Naruto stood up and got back into his stance. That was when Sasuke dropped down in front of him with a Chidori in hand and rushed at Gaara. Unfortunately, Gaara didn't really see this as much of a threat and batted Sasuke into a tree before launching a blast of sand at him, binding him to the tree and knocking him out. The sand then constricted around him, causing Naruto to look at Gaara in anger. "Leave him out of this Gaara. He's already had his chance and now this is between me and you."

But Gaara was beyond caring. **"This is what will make you fight isn't it? Threatening those you care for... I hadn't thought you would be one of those weak people who had ties to the world... I'd thought you were more like me... But I guess I was wrong... Still, this is a good fight, longer than most I've had. It is making my demon excited. So... _MAKE ME FEEL EVEN MORE ALIVE!_"**

* * *

A/N: And that's a wrap! Second chapter out, and we still have yet to see Venom make himself violently known to our young hero. Still, it's a good chapter by my estimation.

Next chapter: End of the Gaara fight, the invasion continues and we see Venom flaunt his monsterliness. Also, Temari gets scarred for life.

Kuta, OUT!

Edit: this was improved as well


	3. A Great Clash: Loss, a Journey and Anger

Right then, I can't sleep worth a crap so I'm doing some writing. I work at my best when I'm tired anyway, I have more energy and the ideas flow together smoother. Yeah. It's odd. Anyway, new chapter for The New Demon. It's full of... Stuff I guess. This chapter may piss some of you of for the simple reason that... Well, you'll see.

People may be thinking... 'Hey wait! Naruto's not doing the 'we' and 'us' thing! WTF he has a symbiote right? Then why is he still saying 'I' instead of 'we' and 'us'?' Well, that's because of Venom having been feeding off of Kurama. They are more linked together than Venom and Naruto... It's kinda of split between them but- after this chapter- the 'we'/'us' thing will be showing up in his speech without him really noticing.

Last thing, I'm gunning for 6-8k words a chapter (not including the A/N's) from this point on, starting this chapter. With a few exceptions made if necessary.

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the copyrighted thing that may appear in this. Don't actually own the rights to non-copyrighted material either but that's just semantics...

* * *

**Chapter 3- A Great Clash: A Great Clash: Loss, a Journey and Anger:**

As he stared down Gaara- in the short lull between their frequent exchanges of attacks- Naruto realized what he could use Gaara's new forms lack of a mobile defense for. Sneak attacks on weak points from odd angles. With a summon or enough shadow clones summoned, he could use the smoke to disguise a henge and leave few clones as leaves, branches or pebbles and launch a sneak attack when the Shukakku container didn't expect it. Explosives would be best, probably the base of the tail or the chest, it seemed slimmer than his stomach.

Bunshin Bakuha (Clone Explosion) no Jutsu was a godsend right now. As he made the hand seals for the summoning jutsu, he mentally prepped himself for the task, but before he could finish Gaara launched more sand weapons at him. Was that all he could do? Didn't he have like, some wind release or maybe some tai or kenjutsu? He had Genjutsu which he could be using, his own sister had said so. Why didn't he use any? Was he relying on the Ichibi as a crutch? If so... "Hey Gaara!" Naruto called out, an idea to maybe peacefully stop this in his head. It was worth a shot. "I got a question. If you want me to prove your existence, why are only using your Bijuu's strength to do it? Doesn't that invalidate your win, because you only won with your Bijuu's help?"

* * *

**Gaara POV:**

Gaara stopped short... Naruto... Was right. He wasn't using his own strength to win, he was calling for help from someone else... That made every win he had, every life he had taken, a verification only of the Shukakku's immense power... But then... What should he do? He didn't mean anything if he couldn't kill to validate himself. Without that how could he continue on living?

He could tell by the look on his face that Naruto could see his pain, and knew what his thoughts were... Maybe he would know what to do? "Uzumaki... What do I do? Killing, it's all I know how to do, and I can't do it using only the Ichibi's power... It wouldn't be my kill only... So... What do I do?"

* * *

**Naruto POV:**

He sounded so... Lost. Naruto thought for a second, what could someone as unstable as Gaara do with his life now? Well, his sister obviously cared for him so... "Well... I know you aren't one for touchy-feely crap... But your sister does care for a great deal. She asked me not to kill you, and even helped give me a plan to stop you, waking you from your full transformation." He made sure to get that plan out of the way so that Gaara wouldn't think this was a trick. "She might teach you Wind Release. If you've an affinity. And then you wouldn't need to kill to validate your existence, because she would through her love for you."

Gaara appeared to stiffen at the word love, and shook his head slowly. "You..." He sounded angry again... Crap. "You don't know** ANYTHING!"** He roared and shot a series of powerful sand spears at him, which he dodged easily. **"LOVE IS WHAT MADE ME THIS WAY IN THE FIRST PLACE! WHEN SHE BETRAYS ME LIKE THEY ALL, ALWAYS, DO IT WOULD JUST BE WORSE!"** He was coming in close now... Shit, what to do? Oh, of course! He was a moron for not doing this earlier!

As Gaara came in close, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out what seemed to be an explosive tag, which he slipped onto what he could tell from it's feel was the bare skin of Gaara's ankle as he dodged the clumsy body tackle. Immediately the sand incasing Gaara fell away to useless grains of quartz on the ground.

Gaara looked around, seeming frightened before calling out. "Mother! Mother where are you, I can't hear you anymore! Why did you leave? Do you hate me now? I won't question you again, I'm sorry just ple-" Naruto interrupted him with a chop to the neck.

Temari walked out and kneeled next to Gaara before turning to Naruto with a question in her eyes. What had happened?

"I used a sealing tag that I got from Jiraiya that cuts off foreign chakra from a persons chakra coils, with it on the Bijuu can't influence him or even activate his automatic defense. Man, I'm glad I was able to conserve so much chakra. I can go back to the stadium now and help the Old Man in his fight now." As he turned to leave though, he felt her grab his hand.

"Wait, please! I... I want to thank you for not killing him, and-" He cut her by gently removing her hand from his. "If you want to thank me so much... Help Gaara, prove to him that you care." He really didn't need this now, when he had to help the Hokage. "If you're insistent though... Get some ramen with me next time you're here in the village." As he jumped into the trees to leave, he failed to take note of her blush.

Upon reaching the stadium, Naruto had a full team of Oto Jounin on him, though they were far inferior to the Jounin of the leaf, whose level- at least in taijutsu- Naruto was on. They attempted to get in close all at once and overwhelm him. A bad idea since Naruto had a shadow clone behind each of them and knocked them out without any issues.

Which impressed many of those around him as he continued past the men he'd defeated with out pause and looked for the Hokage. Well... The large transparent purple thing on the roof covered in trees seemed like a good place to start. Those ANBU weren't doing anything.

He made his way through the stadium to the area where he assumed his grandfather figure was, beating on the fools who attempted to stop him along the way. Once he reached the area with all the useless, gawking ANBU he glared and asked. "What the hell do you four think is going on behind you?" They all turned suddenly, apparently having missed his not-as-quiet-as-he-could-have-made-it entrance. "There is an invasion in progress! If you can't bust through this barrier than go help your fellow leaf ninja fight off these insurgents!" He yelled at them, feeling more angry then anything... And seeming more like the father he knew nothing of than he could possibly imagine. The ANBU immediately jumped from the roof and went to help their compatriots.

Turning from the position he had taken to both yell at them and watch their departure with a sigh of disappointment at their lack of thought in sitting around doing nothing. Naruto took a look at the barrier around what he assumed was the battleground for Oji-san's battle with the Kazekage. Though he had no idea where the damn trees had come from... Were their people inside the barrier maintaining it?

Well, if he could... Yeah, some fuinjutsu to take care of the wall in front of him was easier than fighting one of them and then having to fight all them and then having to help the Old Man. Taking out one of the blank sealing tag slips he usually had on him- gifts from Jiraiya, the old pervert- he quickly drew up a chakra absorbtion seal. It was one of the harder seals he'd been taught, still in the novice range of fuinjutsu, but still, it worked in this scenario.

Attaching the seal to the barrier in front of him, he was surprised when it burned instead of opening the hole he'd wished it to. Well, that was certainly different. He was about to try to use a different seal, not really thinking about the fact that Jiraiya said he hadn't mastered it yet and was likely to mess it up without himself there to supervise it's creation, when the barrier suddenly collapsed. He started a bit, surprised at this, before jumping in after the two he could see that had previously been maintaining the barrier.

What he found after following was... More than a bit upsetting. His Hokage... His Oji-chan... Was dead. There was a large monkey, undoubtedly Enma the Monkey King, on the ground, glaring at the one whom Naruto presumed had done this... Orochimaru... Something snapped. He demanded the fox to pay four times the usual rent, and he felt that power begin to course through his body... It felt good to have this rage. To be able to channel it toward something to help the village.

And then he noticed an oddity, something that had never happened before. There was a small voice in the back of his mind. Trying to console him, and at the same time urging him to kill the one who had hurt him. The voice... It reminded him of a snake what with it's constant emphasizing of the 's's' in it's speech. And another odd thing was happening, his hands were being covered in what looked like tough leather... But felt like it wasn't there. And he felt... Even stronger.

He looked at what area's of him he could see, because the four who were helping Orochimaru were looking at him with a bit of wary caution, and That Man- dammit no emo Sasuke monologue-ing. The Sannin looked curious and muttered something about not having administered a Curse Seal to him... Naruto ignored him... He would be dead soon. But he did notice that he was becoming bulkier... That wouldn't do at all. He needed to be streamlined for his fighting style to be effective. The muscles compacted and Naruto could tell- even without testing this fact- that that compression of muscle had made him far faster than he had been. But then he realized that his tongue was too long and that his teeth felt too sharp... He got out a kunai and used it as a make-shift mirror. Even through the distorted reflection Naruto was aware that he looked like a monster, with a long writing tongue dripping with saliva and whose teeth looked more like daggers. A monster covered in bubbling red energy that formed a vaguely vulpine silhouette.

But he didn't cared about that right now... The voice, it was calling itself 'Venom', was telling him that they were now one, and that it was keeping the fox in check... This thing that had affected his transformation, it was an ally, he was sure. But he'd figure out what that all meant later, right now, he had a snake and it's guards to kill.

Naruto observed them, carefully, for a half second before coming to the conclusion that the girl was the easiest target, she seemed to have the least taijutsu ability if her lack of toned muscles in her arms and calves were anything to judge by, and then the silver-haired emo with two heads. He'd wing it from there, the other two didn't seem like pushovers from a hand-to-hand standpoint.

He moved as quickly as he could to the girls location, to right behind her and before she could turn or jump or even really notice where he was, he had already delivered a right hook to her temple. She rag-dolled for a while before one of the trees stopped her. He had already move by that point though and was breaking Silver's back on his elbow... He rag-dolled a bit harder and farther than the redhead had, but Naruto was unconcerned. By then though the other two had wised up and were at the bastard snakes side, trying to get him to stop yelling at the Old Man about his arms. Well, at least the old monkey had managed to make this revenge shtick easier for Naruto.

As he was about to launch himself at them though, Silver was back and had slammed a fist into his gut... Well two fists actually. They didn't make him budge. Then another of Silver's head grew from his stomach.

That was just plain freaky.

But then he asked for the Kyuubi to burn it out of him, and the head screamed in obviously debilitating pain. Then it flew from his stomach and into the other Silver who was roaring something or other about his brother. Naruto would think about it later, these two weren't a threat anyway. He slammed the Silver who had a body's head into the ground and knocked him out.

And then he sensed some sort of danger from just to right of his neck and tried to avoid it. But it followed him and there was a pain in his shoulder. He heard the bastard laugh tiredly and tell him that if he survived he would seek him out for control of his 'new power.' Great, he'd been marked like Sasuke. Motherfucker. Black descended on his vision.

* * *

**Third Person Omniscient POV:**

The general feeling when the ANBU got back to the area where the Sandaime Hokage had died not two minutes later was confusion. The Hokage was dead, the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was unconscious on the ground, there were two of the people who had been maintaining the barrier passed out, and the Monkey King was angrily shouting at the Sandaime's body. Upon questioning the Monkey King they learned of the boy's transformation and attempted avenging of the Hokage and his being bitten by the Snake Sannin.

They debated amongst themselves what to do, but eventually they deemed that it was outside of their jurisdiction and that the ANBU Commander was the top brass- militarily speaking- and that he would decide what to do with the boy. The two he had captured for Konoha though were going to Torture and Interrogation for processing and intelligence extraction. They had intel on Oto and it was going to be theirs before the week was up or heads would roll.

* * *

**Naruto POV:**

He awoke in a sewer- a dank and poorly lit one as well- and groaned to himself, he felt like shit. What had that pedo-snake done to him? Oh, right that Curse Seal thing...

And why the fuck had someone thrown him into the sewers? He looked around for an exit for a while before realizing that these sewers were nothing like the sewers he had cleaned in D ranks over the last few months. These weren't the sewers of Konoha. But then... Maybe it was a Genjutsu? That seemed likely. The snake had most likely taken him to some base of his and was now playing with his head.

It was at this point that Naruto looked down and saw in the water around his ankles a hazy and out of focus version of his face... With red sclera and irises. He was also grinning like a loon. And then he popped out of the water and decked Naruto in the face.

Naruto rolled with the hit and kicked the fake in the chest. "You know," He said in an annoyed tone. "For a genjutsu, this is pretty shitty." He then made the ram sign while expelling a lot of his chakra in one burst. "Kai" Nothing happened. "What the hell?"

The other him, in a deeper tone and with an angry tone replied to his rhetorical question. "This isn't a genjutsu... It's your mind! And I'm the side of you that you that has all the real power! I'm your rage and your hatred and your disdain. And thanks to Orochimaru, I have the power to kill you and take over this body!"

Naruto looked at his hatred askance and replied. "You do know that Orochimaru killed the Sandaime right? The man that I, and- by proxy if what you say is true- you as well, loved like a grandfather? Why would you thank Orochimaru for anything?"

The mass of hatred didn't say anything for a second and Naruto was about to continue when it chuckled. "That's true, I hate Orochimaru more than anyone... But it's thanks to him that I'll get my revenge on him, which I find fitting."

"Well then, if you're adamant in this," Naruto shot back, tired of dealing with his other half. "Then I'm gonna have to stop you! I know that I hate most of the village... But I can't let you destroy it! A Hokage doesn't destroy his village, he protects it with everything he has! And that's what I'm gonna do, right here and now. I'm going to protect it from myself -ttebayo! ... Dammit I thought that that damn verbal tick was gone!"

From the second that he'd acknowledged his hatred though it had been looking less confrontational. "You... Admit it?" A look of confusion slipped on Naruto's face. "You're willing to admit that you hate them... And you still wish to protect them?"

Naruto smiled a bit sheepishly at that, but quickly got his composure back. "They may be hateful ignorant sheep... But if I were to act on my hatred for them... It would bring me down to their level... You know, you don't actually seem like a bad guy... Do you really want to do this?" Naruto dropped his fighting stance and walked over to himself... Mindfuck. Once he got there he put a hand on his shoulder. "I mean... We'd be stronger together than we would be apart right?" He hugged himself... God this was weird. "I mean, without you... I wouldn't be here today, would I?"

His dark half... It cried a little, seemingly in happiness at having been acknowledged. "Yeah," Yami Naruto replied. "So don't make me have to come back here!" He vanished slowly, smiling at how mistaken he had been about his other side.

It was right after his dark half disappeared that a white snake fighting a black goo monster came crashing through a wall. And the snake had Oro-teme's face on it. "Oh, come on! What the hell is wrong with my mind!"

The goo turned it's head facsimile at his cry of outrage. And it talked. Dufaq? "Hossst? Hossst! Help me! Thisss sssnake isss a pieccce of the sssnake man'sss sssoul... If left alone it will attempt to sssubvert both of our willsss and make usss ssslavesss... Help me defeat it and we can ussse the ssseal that it arrived in's power asss we wisssh."

That seemed like a good enough reason to help the goo, which was obviously that... Venom thing that had helped him in battle against Orochi-teme. He'd help. "Right then, first things first! Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Two thousand of him popped into existence and they all charged at the snake intent on holding it down by the wriggling snakes that it was composed of. Once they had, it started to try to connive it's way out of it's death, with lies and honeyed words and attempts to bribe them. Neither Naruto nor Venom were amused, much less taken in by those selfsame lies.

Naruto only wished he had a large sword, cause it would be easier to kill this thing if it were in pieces. An then and all of the sudden there was Zabuza's Kubikiribouchou if his hand... Right, it was his mind and if he wished for a sword it it would pop up. The Venom goo just turned it's hand into a blade and stabbed away while Naruto hacked it's body to pieces. Each clone had a piece and he told them all to explode once he and Venom were out of the blast radius.

The explosion was beautiful to Naruto, mostly because it was killing a piece of Orochimaru. On the wall opposite the one Venom had been pushed through prior to Naruto's help was now the diagram of a intricately complex seal... Which then compressed itself into the form of a set of three marks, each vaguely reminiscent of a canine's tooth, and moved down the wall over the top of the water and up Naruto's left leg- eventually making it's way to his right bicep.

Naruto looked at it for a second in confusion before giving a 'hmph' and letting it go. He then turned to Venom and extended a hand. "We never formally introduced ourselves. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and apparently also your host as well, I like training ramen and the thought of killing that snake douche. My hobbies are training and gardening. I dislike the time it takes for instant ramen to cook, the civilians in my village and when I just can't seem to get 'that one new jutsu' to work. My dream is to be the Hokage. Happy to be sharing a body with you." He felt he ought to be polite to the being that he suspected had been the reason he had done as well in the Academy as he had. And grateful.

It shook it's head a bit, seeming to be both mildly surprised and very amused by Naruto's adherence to tradition and social norms. It took his hand and shook it. "Venom, I like to live, help my hossst at whatever tasssk he or ssshe might need help in and fight. Hobbiesss include sssearching for the bessst hossst I can find, and protecting them. I dissslike loud, high pitch noisssesss and fire. My dream isss to live in harmony with my perfect hossst for all of time." Well, that was certainly a blunt response. Venom seemed fairly straight forward and simple. Everything seemed to revolve around it's host. That seemed like it was good, for Naruto anyway.

"Well, I suppose I should probably leave- I mean we can talk outside of here if need be right?" At Venom's nod, Naruto allowed himself to pass out and vanished from his mindscape. Venom then walked through the hole in the wall from his fight with Orochimaru's soul piece and up to Kurama's cage. "Ssso, mighty Kurama, what do you think of our hossst now that he'sss been here?"

The beast refused to answer.

* * *

**Naruto's Hospital Room:**

The orderly who was taking the blonds blood pressure started as he grabbed her wrist while groaning. She had been told he would be out for at least a week- if he even woke up at all- what was he doing awake this early? The council would have to be told. However, before she could wrench her hand from his grasp he asked her a question. "The date?" "The t-twelfth of M-m-may." She stuttered out.

"Two days, huh..." He was talking to himself and let go of her, she fled the room. "Huh, what a pathetically easy to scare woman." The first thing Naruto did was make sure he was in his normal form. He was. Next he tried to contact Venom through his thoughts. 'Venom, you in there?'

'Yesss, hossst. Do you need sssomething?' The symbiote answered after half a second.

'Nah, just testing the mic, so to speak.' Naruto replied, before a thought occurred to him. 'Although, that transformation thing that you did against Orochi-teme and his guards, can I have that on command?'

Naruto could somehow feel Venom's smirk at this question. 'Of courssse, I wouldn't be a good tenant if I didn't provide what asssissstanccce I could in timesss of ssstrife.' That was an answer Naruto could appreciate.

'Thanks, Venom. I appreciate your help... But you know I have one other question. I don't remember when we became one, so... When did that happen?' He was honestly curious now that he had thought of it.

Venom recalled the night fondly, and that fond emotion transferred to Naruto. 'Your eleventh birthday. I wasss the water on the floor, I had been dying after essscaping the prissson for me that you had found- that rock on the alter. You sssaved me that night hossst. I owe you for that.'

Naruto liked that thought a lot. 'It's not like I knew that, so don't sweat it V-man. I'd say we're even since I assume you're the reason I'm not a useless, brain-dead dobe anymore.'

Venom chuckled and affirmed that assumption.

A few minutes of idle talk between later the conversation ended and Naruto went about finding his clothes- in the closet in the corner of the room- and leaving his room through the window. He went straight to his shitty apartment and got his wallet out of it's stash under the floorboards next to his bed and went to Ichiraku's for some ramen.

As he made his way there, numerous shinobi- who had previously not particularly cared for him- gave him little acknowledging waves and light smiles. Naruto was confused by this but let it slide, they had never beaten him at least. Once he got to the ramen stand that he frequented Naruto slipped passed the streamers that hung from the overhang and shades the stand from the heat, calling out in a cheerful manner to the cooks for his usual four large bowls of miso. Talking a bit with the owners of the stand while eating Naruto learned that the funeral for the third was in another two days, which he would most certainly attend.

After he finished his ramen and wished the Ichiraku's a cheerful farewell Naruto headed to the only training ground he knew would be totally abandoned at this time of day. His own teams. They never trained any earlier than ten in the morning and it was currently seven, which would give him an hour or two before Sakura got there- assuming they had team training today- in which he could test the abilities of the new seal he had obtained from the snake. Or actually- and this was a much safer plan- he could get Jiraiya to look at it so he could tell him whether or not it was actually safe. It wasn't that he didn't trust Venom, but he himself knew nothing of this seal, and he would need a sealing expert to look at it before he would deem it safe for his own use- or better yet, a sealing master.

It had taken hours to find Jiraiya, five of them in fact, but now that he had and had also explained why he wanted him to look at it- leaving Venom out of the tale and wondering if maybe Venom had something to do with him using 'we' and 'us' instead of 'I' and 'me- the irredeemable pervert had agreed that Naruto's caution was sensible and was currently looking over the seal for any signs that it could be a danger to Naruto's either physical or mental health. After a brief exclamation towards the beginning of the inspection, Jiraiya got a really serious look on his face and studied the seal in more minute detail. Two hours of boredom and light conversation with Venom later, the man bonked him on the head to get his attention.

"Well brat, here's the deal. Orochimaru can't control you through this seal anymore. Instead of using the soul fragment that Orochimaru left in there as a link to him and a target against whom to weaken your mental resistance to, the seal is actually using your own soul in it's place. You'll probably be a bit more impulsive but that's it, in that regard." Naruto felt relief at that, he hadn't wanted to be a slave to Orochimaru's will. "The seal was mutated by your interference during it's stabilization period, meaning that it's in it's stage two form- like the two Oto shinobi you captured- rather than it's stage one form like your teammate or the proctor of the second exam." Naruto raised his hand for a question. "Yeah, you brat?"

"What's this stage two thing do? We saw what stage one does in the forest of death, when Sasuke went nuts, but what's the second stage do?" That was what had Naruto worried now.

"Well, from what the Yamanaka have been able to extract from those two you captured, it's a transformation into some other form that is dependent on your seal. The girl gets horns and grey skin, the boys get some kinda armor and red skin, it varies." Came the answer, which Naruto actually didn't mind. He had another ace perhaps, if the cost wasn't to high. "In a normal person who has it, the transformation is rough and painful and damaging to the body, but given that you have the Kyuubi and it's regeneration I'd say that it's safe for you. It also enhances your strength and durability. In your case, and likely only in your case, this seal is just another trump card." Jiraiya scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner. "If you get much stronger than I can honestly say that you'd have no issues against anyone in the village but me, at least as far as physical strength and speed goes." Naruto jumped into the air and pumped his fist at the end of Jiraiya's speech.

"This is exactly what we were hoping you were gonna say, Ero-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed using the nickname he'd altered from the original 'Ero-sennin' once he'd actually been taught useful things by the man. His Fuuton: Daitoppa no Jutsu and the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. "A little training to get used to the new form and maybe we can make some jutsu based around it!"

His enthusiasm made Jiraiya chuckle, and while the disrespect was annoying, the kid had called him sensei. And that had brought back some good memories. "Well, there is just one potential draw back, the seal is taking five percent of you chakra to fuel itself when passive- which, by the way, is more than other two- so it may tire you to use it actively, you'll have to test the waters and see."

Naruto got a bit more serious after that and nodded. "Right, thanks for the warning Ero-sensei. We'll keep that in mind. And... If you want to oversee our training... We wouldn't mind." He made the concession, hard though it was since the man was so perverted, that the man did have more experience and would likely be able to help his training speed up considerably.

Jiraiya laughed boisterously- the only way he seemed to know how to laugh- and slapped Naruto on the back. "Of course I'll be watching after you, you brat. If I didn't you'd kill yourself with your stupid ideas." And here was exactly why Naruto didn't like to let Jiraiya know when he wanted help. He got this obnoxious way of speaking that really grated on the blond Jinchuuriki's last nerve.

Naruto sucked it up and followed the man to their training spot by a waterfall.

Naruto woke on the day of the Sandaime's funeral with a sigh of mourning. He had been putting off these feelings of loss and pain so that he could train effectively, but on today of all days, he couldn't allow himself to forget his Ji-chan's death and the subsequent grief he felt. He dressed in his funeral best slowly and deliberately so as to make sure that everything was in it's place, and actually tried- with, surprisingly, a bit of success- to tame his wild mop of hair.

As the clock in his bedroom changed from seven fifty-nine to eight o'clock in the morning, Naruto left his apartment and began the fifteen minute walk to the funeral grounds in the cemetery- doing his level best not to ruffle his clothes. He was joined on this walk by Iruka-sensei, Teuchi-Jiji and Ayame-neechan. He was glad of their emotional support- and that of Venom, who was trying to soothe him in his thoughts. It made things almost seem better. Almost.

At the funeral Naruto listened with a slight contempt as a man who likely had spent very little time even conversing with the Hokage went on in a droning voice about the man's virtues. He didn't speak out though, knowing that to interrupt this would be the greatest of insult that he could give to the man who had been kinder to him than literally anyone else in the village. Tears stung his eyes as he listened to Konohamaru's grieving cries, taking note that no one seemed to actually be comforting him, not even the boy's own uncle.

This ticked him off. The boy who everyone in the village treated so well, who they supposedly respected as the grandson of their leader, didn't even have one person giving him comfort in his time of grief? That was fucked up. So he discreetly made his way over to the kid who had declared himself the blond's rival and laid a hand on his head. Konohamaru looked up at him as the first of the rain started to fall, with tears and pain and desperate hope for comfort in his eyes and Naruto nodded at him, letting him know that the pain he felt was acknowledged and that someone cared enough to let the boy use them as a shoulder to cry on.

Wailing even harder from the fact that his rival would be so understanding, Konohamaru threw himself at his role-model and cried into the side of his hip. This would be the day that Naruto earned himself one of the best and most loyal friends he would ever have.

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed Ebisu edging closer- likely to make sure Konohamaru wasn't 'corrupted' by 'the demon's foul influence' or some such similarly ridiculous bullshit. Naruto glared at him so that he wouldn't interrupt.

The funeral took a few hours to be done, and Naruto felt it had been hollow and soulless. He took Konohamaru aside for a moment afterward and told him. "Konohamaru, we're gonna tell you this right now. Grief is a part of life, try not to let it control you or overwhelm you... But next year on the anniversary of his death and every year following, barring missions interrupting it, we'll take you to visit his grave and the two of us can grieve for your Ji-chan together, okay?"

Konohamaru had looked at him at that, with an undying loyalty in his eyes. "Sure thing, Naruto-aniki."

The weeks following the funeral of Sarutobi Hiruzen, for Naruto at least, were spent in a flurry of activity. He was always making clones to help with repair effort or training, sometimes with Jiraiya, sometimes without. He would have been training with his team but because Kakashi-sensei had been drafted by the council to do multiple high-rank missions in succession- along with nearly every other Jounin or Chunin in the village in an effort to bring in enough money to keep the village afloat- team training had been put on hold. This meant that because neither Sasuke nor Sakura particularly liked him or wanted to spend more time with him than necessary, he was stuck training himself.

As a result of this training he had learned several things. One was that shadow clones gave him their memories when dispelled. This had led to him using them to train his chakra control, which had subsequently taken a steep few steps up on the ladder of competency. He was now far from the rung on that ladder he had been on before the aforementioned discovery- abysmal- and was now nearly satisfied that his most glaring weakness was mostly taken care of on this new rung- a fair bit above average. Another was that combining various chakra control exercises made them exponentially harder rather than lineally more difficult as he'd expected.

He had also discovered that he was a fair hand at carpentry and electrical wiring.

While his new found level of control didn't affect the level of chakra that the stage one and two curse seal forms ate- seven and nine percent respectively- he found that developing the jutsu for them that he'd wanted to was coming more easily than it had previously... Though there was one that kept him frustrated.

"Dammit Ero-sensei! Can't you at least give us more of a hint than 'focus the chakra in the tips?'" Naruto called out to his perverted teacher when the latest jutsu he was working on blew up in his face. This jutsu- which he was still working on a name for- was for his stage two form and involved him using his forms tail, horns and various spines. He was trying to increase their cutting and penetrating power with chakra, and Jiraiya was being stubbornly unhelpful, giving the vaguest possible hints.

"Listen, brat, cause I'm only telling you this one more time." Jiraiya was a little annoyed because Naruto had interrupted his research for this. "If I were to tell you how to do every little thing than you wouldn't learn anything except to ask me for advice when something goes wrong. I'm trying not to limit your progress once I'm gone, though with how hopeless you are there's a distinct chance that you'll die before then." He let out a sigh.

Naruto grumbled and let his hold over the stage two form loosen and went back to normal. Well, at least he was used to the extra weight on his head and having a tail now and could use them in a fight well enough that Jiraiya didn't think it too horrible, though he still said it needed a lot of work.

The next day when he went to the place he usually went to to train, Jiraiya was there and told him to sit down and listen. "I've got a mission to go on right now, and I'm taking you with me." He started off bluntly, knowing that beating around the bush with Naruto was pointless. "I'm going out to bring my other teammate, Tsunade, back. It'll take a while, so I'd like to at least do something productive while I travel- and training you counts."

Naruto nodded and replied. "Well, give us a few hours to pick some things up from the apartment and get some custom equipment from this blacksmith who owes us a favor and we'll be at the main gates at noon. That is, if we are leaving today?" Receiving a nod from his sensei, Naruto gave him a salute and rushed off to get his things from the blacksmith while making some clones, one to pack his things in his apartment into scrolls and more to tell the people he had been helping rebuild that day that he wouldn't be around due to a mission for an uncertain amount of time and that he was sorry.

Upon reaching the Shinobi Armaments weapon and armor shop Naruto walked inside and asked the owner- who was three time Naruto's size and built like a mountain of muscle with a blocky face no hair and numerous scars- one Higarashi Kanaro. "Hey, Kanaro-san, is that custom chakra conductive armor done yet?" This was asked in as polite a tone as Naruto knew how to make.

The man looked up from the counter and replied. "Yeah, the weapon you wanted is the only thing left to make. Are you sure you can move well in such heavy armor though?" He finished skeptically.

Naruto just nodded and dropped the amount of money they had agreed would cover the rest of the cost of the arms and armor Naruto had asked for as payment for rebuilding the man's shop/home instead of the usual reward he might have gotten. Fifty-seven-thousand nine-hundred and twenty-two ryo. Naruto thought it more than fair. Kanaro then roared out toward the back of the store. "Oi, Tenten, get that custom armor that goes with the custom weapon out here, the guy apparently needs it now!"

At the name Tenten Naruto felt a tingling sense of recognition, one that he couldn't quite place. "Okay, Tou-san!" Came the bright and chipper voice of a young girl that Naruto was certain he'd heard before but still couldn't place. "Is he going on a mission or-" The girl stopped mid sentence when she saw him while carrying in a heavily wrapped and bulky assortment of objects. And now he remembered where he'd heard both the name and the voice. Neji's teammate, who was honestly pretty cute- what with the panda ear hairstyle and the large brown doe eyes and all. The silence was getting to him a bit so Naruto decided to break it

"Hehe, hi Tenten-san, we didn't know this was your fathers shop." She blinked and then seemed to realize how rude she was being and shook her head- he assumed to clear it.

"Sorry, Naruto-san, it was just a bit sudden seeing you here and, well... Yeah." She had started off strongly but by then end of her apology she had finished pretty lamely. But her father had taken the whole interaction and jumped to do a little teasing of them over their awkward meeting.

"So, daughter of mine, is this boy your..." He trailed off while bringing his pinky up in the symbol for boyfriend/girlfriend. She blushed and rushed to shove Naruto's things into his hands and rushed out all the while calling out 'Nononono.'

Naruto was amused. He shook his head to rid it of unnecessary thoughts and started to unwrap his new equipment, to find that they were exactly as he'd envisioned them. The multi-plated and heavily weighted shin-ankle-and-toe guards went up to just above his knees and each had a wicked looking tri-bladed four inch spike on the back where they wrapped around to provide his Achilles tendon with some protection. They were uniformly straight on the outside so as to look like thin iron pillars. He had bought a rare pair of closed-toe knee length combat boots to wear under them, rare because of the fact that rarely did anyone wear them.

His old bracers had been an old and beat up pair of standard ANBU fare. He'd decided to go with a similar design as on his leg armor, meaning that they would resemble- when worn- a pair of thin iron pillars that would also protect his wrists and the backs of his hands up to his knuckles. And they even had small blades that jutted maybe four inches past his elbows, the blade being lined up with the blade of his forearm and facing outward.

The second to last piece of armor he'd had made wasn't chakra conductive, but it was fairly heavy and dense, which was why it was so thin that it could fit under his clothing. It was a breastplate in the style of the ANBU, though made from a slightly less high quality version of the alloy they typically used.

He'd commissioned a thick faceplate- one vaguely reminiscent of the Nidaime Hokage under which he could still wear the hitai-ite Iruka-sensei had given him. It covered his ears and had an area where an armored re-breather could be fitted into it though- and triple thick shatter-proof glass that a high grade kunai couldn't pierce over his eyes also. It had holes in strategically placed areas for his horns in case he needed to go into his stage two form. Spinning a barely noticeable knob on the left side of his face would slide the glass up to reveal his eyes in the event that the glass became obscured by paint or heavy rain.

Naruto did so and slid it on first before replacing his old bracers and shin guards with the new and improved models and slipping the breastplate on under his coat but above the light shirt he wore under it.

Looking into the full length mirror in the shop, Naruto could honestly say that if his blonde hair were any other color he wouldn't recognize himself. He decided to get used to his new armor before he went to the main gates by way of going a few rounds in his old obstacle course, the rooftops of the town. Thanking Kanaro for his superb craftsmanship as he left and promising to come back after the mission for his weapon, Naruto leapt up to the top of the nearest building, noticing the extra weight from the heavier equipment.

As he wove his way through the village's rooftop highway he noticed that it was getting easier by the second to do this and made a mental note to ask Jiraiya about a way to train his speed and strength further and more efficiently than with weights. And now that he thought about it, he ought to ask him to put some soundproofing seals on the inside of his clothes so that any of the Oto nin who actually used sound based jutsu couldn't hurt Venom. He couldn't tell the old super pervert about that though, he'd have to say... Well, if he left out Venom's name he actually could tell Jiraiya that.

At around noon, Naruto met up with his clone and Jiraiya. His new equipment got a raised eye-brow, but the man shrugged it off and motioned for Naruto to follow him. Which he did after getting his stuff, all sealed up into one neat scroll for him by his clone. Leaving the village required him to remove his faceplate so they could be sure of his identity, but after that it was smooth sailing.

For Naruto the next three weeks had been an exercise in patience, trying to keep the pervert on the trail and away from hookers. Surprisingly, when he'd asked for a jutsu from Jiraiya to keep from going insane with boredom, he'd actually gotten something, though felt it was more of a chakra control exercise that could be used offensively in and of itself than and actual jutsu. Jiraiya said that the Yondaime had made it and that it was called the Rasengan. Naruto thought the name apt, if a little simplistic, seeing as it meant 'Spiraling Ball' and that's exactly what the move was- a softball sized ball of condensed spiraling chakra.

The first step had been the hard part, he'd thought at first, but he'd gotten it down. Spinning the chakra in multiple directions at once to create the necessary pressure to make the water balloon explode, it had taken time- a few days to be exact- to even figure out that that was what he had to do. The next step- adding the power needed to explode a substantially thicker and sturdier rubber ball like the water balloon- had only taken him a few quick tries, potent as his chakra was. Jiraiya had been speechless, saying that a similar task had taken him three months.

Containing it all and compressing it down into a dense grinding ball of death however... Well, he'd been able to get it down within the first week, if he wanted to waste time making a clone and charging it up for three seconds and not just use the damn thing. So he'd been using the shadow clones to help him train for these last two weeks and nearly had it down too... Well, he was still using two hands, but it didn't have to charge for longer than a fraction of a second which was better than he'd been doing at any rate.

Currently, they were in Tanzaku Gai and were using bar hopping as an excuse to look for Tsunade. The nearby castle had been nearly leveled and Ero-sensei had told him it was likely Tsunade's work. Which made Naruto wonder just how strong the woman was.

"We're telling you Ero-sensei, one more week and this'll be one of our best jutsu." Naruto bragged as he continued to practice the Rasengan while on the way between bars.

Jiraiya laughed at his bragging, telling him that he'd never be as great as 'the enviable and gallant Jiraiya-sama' when they were going into the latest bar but stopped and called out to the blond woman that Naruto recognized from the photo Jiraiya had shown him of the form that Tsunade was likely to be using and the woman's brunette companion- who was holding a pig. "Tsunade-hime! It's been too long, you should let us join you for a few rounds!" Gah, that was obnoxious.

The woman grumbled a bit but nodded and they went over, the man dragging Naruto with him, despite the fact that Naruto had been making to follow him."Well, then Jiraiya, what do want? I've already had to deal with one trip down Memory Lane today, I don't much appreciate another so soon." Jeez, she was even more blunt than Jiraiya, and what did she mean by that Memory Lane comment?

"So, then" Jiraiya looked serious and grim now. Odd. "I assume you've heard about Sarutobi-sensei?" Ah, yeah...

"Yeah, our teammate showed up for a conversation and he told me how he did it." She answered. Naruto grew very still at that, which Jiraiya seemed to take note of.

"Orochimaru was here?" Naruto questioned in a dead tone, which was somewhat distorted from the re-breather he had finally gotten around to installing a week or two back. "And you didn't try to kill him on sight as his entry in the bingo book advises all ANBU teams and higher level shinobi to attempt to?" He sounded a bit angry at this. "Even after he killed your sensei and told you he'd done it?" He sounded very angry now. Enraged even.

Tsunade glanced at him dismissively. "So Jiraiya, is this brat your new apprentice? A downgrade from your last one in my opinion."

She was really, visibly pissing him off now. "Oi, you vain old hag hiding behind a genjutsu! Don't disrespect us! We're going to be Hokage!"

She looked at him now, actually looked at him, and laughed a little to herself- though she still seemed a little steamed about the hag comment and the reference to her genjutsu. "Hokage? Yeah right, A brat like you has no chance." She turned to Jiraiya and asked. "So, I'm going to assume you didn't go to all the trouble of tracking me down just for drinks and yelling. You could find that just as easily in a whorehouse."

Jiraiya sighed and nodded at her, trying- with limited success- to calm Naruto with stern looks and a hand on his shoulder. "The council has nominated you for the title of Godaime Hokage." He told her with a serious tone and no laughter in his eyes.

She snorted disdainfully and set her saucer down. Naruto narrowed his eyes and tried to see why this woman deserved the title he had so ardently pursued for nearly a decade now. Then she spoke. "Hah! As if I'd ever take up that useless death trap of an office, all the Hokages are fools who die tragically, even Sensei wasn't and exception." Naruto saw red. He broke Jiraiya's grip and smashed the table in two before attempting to punch this rude, disrespectful woman through the wall and the next three buildings- before he was caught in Jiraiya's Ranji Shigami no Jutsu.

He raged against this however, straining against the bonds that held him. "Dammit Jiraiya she just insulted her own ancestors! Her own fucking Grandfather, Granduncle and Sensei! Let us smash her wrinkled face in! She doesn't fucking deserve the title if she's so damn cowardly!" He was nearly senseless with rage and was beginning to leak out the Kyuubi's chakra and strain through Jiraiya's hair to reach towards the woman who seemed more than a little both stunned and outraged by his fit of anger.

Tsunade stood up and yelled at Jiraiya. "Bring him outside, if he wants a fight so bad, I'll pound him into the ground for a while!"

"Tsunade-hime, listen to me for once this time! Don't fight him, he-" she swept passed him, utterly ignoring as she had grown used to doing before she had left the village.

"If he chicken's out of the fight then I might forgive him if he begs on his knees!" She called back to them, which caused Naruto to fight even harder against Jiraiya's hair. Shizune seemed concerned as well, for she had heard the worry in Jiraiya's voice and was certain that the boy was somehow dangerous. But she also knew that her mentor wouldn't listen to her about this, she rarely listened to her about anything anymore as it was.

Naruto forced himself to calm enough to think though, at Venom's urging. The woman was world famous as a medic and a combatant. There was a reason for that. So he had to think if he wanted not to die, even if he was supernaturally strong and durable because of Venom's awesomeness. He wasn't going to back down though. This woman had not only allowed Orochi-teme to walk free after hearing that he'd killed a man that she ought to have had some feelings of fondness for, but she had gone on to insult not only Naruto's idol, but her own ancestors and aforementioned sensei as well.

She needed a beating.

* * *

End~

And that's a wrap. Naruto is pissed and next chapter, lots of stuff. Also, over 9k words in this chapter! Hell yeah! Akatsuki didn't make an appearance here because I'm saving that for a custom arc dealing with their introduction that will take place between this arc and the time-skip. As for Temari being scarred for life? Mostly she was scarred by the fact that there was so simple a way for Gaara to be defeated.


	4. In Which Discoveries are Made

Kk, new chapter of The New Demon. Shit's goin' down! Tsunade and Naruto's fight and the fight betwixt Sannin! Orochimaru had better watch his back, because Naruto is already much stronger than he had been! Naruto is getting too strong now though, too quickly for how I want this story to play out. So, Naruto's gonna get a beat down sometime in the next few chapters, showing that against an enemy who's ready for him and is prepared for his abilities, he can't really do shit yet. Like maybe... Itachi who wasn't seen last chapter for reasons to be explained. Or maybe Kimimaro.

Now, I did a bit of research- prompted by a particularly insightful reviewer- re-read some of the newer chapters and... Naruto is likely to be an epic winning _**BOSS **_once they start teaching him sage mode. Because he has a curse seal. Which is derivative from Jugo's clan's ability to take in natural energy to affect changes in their physiology. Yeah, that's right, Jugo's _clan's ability to **take in natural**__** energy** __(**that stuff you gather for sage mode?**) to affect physiological mutation._ So yeah, if I decide to give Naruto sage mode, he's gonna be boss at it cause the gathering thing is half-way done already just from that.

This is also the first chapter where Naruto's bloodline gets noticed, and explained. And it is not in any way related to his chakra _element_, which in and of itself is fairly unique.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter and I'll talk to you in the next A/N, coming soon (hopefully, and barring any setbacks) with the release of the next chapter of And the Universe Fell.

Kuta, out!

Disclaimer: I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I do not own any copyrighted intellectual property used in this story or any other I'm currently writing or have written in the past. All rights go to the respective owners of the copyrighted material in question. I make no money from this or any other story I've ever written. Ever.

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Chapter Four: In Which Discoveries are Made

**Tsunade POV (Third Person Subjective Limited)**

Tsunade was a proud woman, regardless of her current less-than-pride-worthy situation in regards to her financial situation, or her living situation in general. This, combined with a stubbornness to equal a bull, rendered her incapable of admitting to being wrong, about much of anything. So when some upstart little brat called her out on disrespect for her own ancestors (whom she had insulted in ways she had viciously killed others for doing) her bull-headed pride wouldn't allow her to admit that she was in the wrong. And she decided to take out her frustrations on the author of their existence, the aforementioned upstart.

Turning once she got into the road (which quickly thereafter cleared, the people occupying it realizing just _who _was gearing up for a fight) Tsunade graced the boy with a smirk and said. "Since I don't want to kill you, you being Jiraiya's latest charity case, I'll only use one finger." This being said while holding said finger in the air for him to examine, her right index finger. Naruto didn't look amused.

He looked at her in a way that seemed tell Tsunade "That is a _really_ big mistake, and I'm gonna show you why." He moved then and had Tsunade not been a Kage-level ninja for the last decade or two, she'd have probably died in his first attack. His kick shattered the earth beneath his foot, in a manner not dissimilar to her own strength technique. She narrowed her eyes. The speed he'd displayed, and the way he moved combined was indicative of someone who was still fairly new to said speed, even though they were used to it. The strength worried her, had he redeveloped her technique?

Watching him move for a bit and keeping her chakra senses open calmed Tsunade significantly, but at the same time worried her even more. He wasn't using that much chakra to enhance his speed, let alone his strength... But then how was he getting so much force into his attacks? What had Jiraiya done to make him so powerful in so obviously short a time? She flicked him shortly after this, in the forehead to rattle his brain a bit and knock him out long enough for her to examine his musculature and determine what her idiot teammate had done to him.

She wasn't expecting him to roll with the hit, shake his head to clear it and come back for more.

* * *

**Normal POV**

Naruto had expected a bit more pain from one of Tsunade's hits. He'd read about her shattering boulders with a similar flick of her finger. So when he was able to roll with the hit and come out smelling roses (mostly) he figured she was taking it easier on him than he'd already thought she was. Underestimating him even worse. But he was getting a feel for her movements now, seeing the pattern by which she moved. If he and Venom teamed up to take her out it could work... Hell, even the level one curse seal would probably give this out of shape hag a fit. But this was his fight, he was determined to win it without help from outside sources as best he could, or lose it and lose some honor with it.

As he continued to swing at her though, he had to now dodge her own attacks which were harder to dodge than Jiraiya's by wrote of having splash damage as an added factor, and some of those bits of shrapnel were more like kunai or senbon than rocks. That said, most of his time in this fight was now devoted to dodging those than attacking in his own right. And she was still only using that one finger. If he couldn't at least get her to use her whole fist, or maybe the other hand, to block probably... Wait, he still had Kage Bunshin to use, right? And he'd reverted back to his pre-Venom bull-charge tactics... Was he really that worked up?

Jumping back a large distance, and staying there for a second, caused Tsunade to smirk again. "Admitting that you've lost, little boy?" She asked condescendingly.

"Oh, not at all, hag." He spat back venomously. "We're merely about to start actually using our head. We've been fighting, so far, like an academy student on his first day, no distractions to draw your eye, no Kawarimi no Jutsu, not even a single thrown kunai or elemental ninjutsu, just a straight up taijutsu match." Tsunade frowned at that, the entire time he'd been holding back? That couldn't be right, she could feel the rage behind the blows she dodged, he practically radiated killing intent. If he had been holding out on the fight then she was the Shichidaime Tsuchikage. Naruto chuckled at her frown before continuing. "All in an ill-thought up attempt to beat you where you thrive, combat wise. Taijutsu. Well, seeing as we obviously can't win that way, we thought it would be best to fight you like we prefer to. Strategically."

With that, Naruto made a few seal-less clones and sent them of to fight her while he watched. It was a whole-sale slaughter. The first clone hit, not knocking her out but giving her a hell of a migraine. After that she started up the mining imitation again, digging up more earth and rock per swing than most miner's did in three hours.

It was a total reversal. The shrapnel he couldn't even feel popped his clones like he did a rubber ball during his... Well, if he toned down the power and made enough clones to cover which of him was the real one, he could probably at least force her to use her other hand at least. Making the requisite clones and signaling to one of them via whistle to hang back, Naruto and his various clones started to charge up Rasengan, he had currently gotten the charge time down to a fraction of a second and once it was fully charged he could keep it as such with only one hand, before charging.

* * *

**General POV:**

Tsunade's eyes widened, the boy could actually use that technique? He hadn't mastered it yet, but it was nearly battle ready... Maybe she had been mistaken about his skill level? No, Jiraiya had probably baby-stepped him through the whole process. And he was still only charging his clones in. She'd just take them all out with shrapnel and pound his face in a bit more forcefully than she needed to do to knock him out.

Tapping the ground with her finger, she smirked as the clones almost all popped... Until she realised that the sound of the Rasengan had only lessened, not vanished entirely. Suddenly, there was a Naruto in her face, smirking victoriously as he thrust his left hand forward, keeping his dominant right hand, and the Rasengan in it, hidden behind his back in such a way as seem unintentional.

She diverted the deathball with a poke and, while briefly distracted by a split-second of watching it, nearly missed him bring his right hand forward for the follow up. Grabbing it in her left hand, she threw him to the left, watching the clone she'd been sure was the real one poof away, and taking an axe kick to the shoulder, glancingly, for her trouble.

And now he was smirking at her. "What's so amusing? You think that just because you landed one glancing blow that I wont even feel tomorrow, that this fight is decided?"

He just smirked even wider before pulling a passable imitation of herself. "'Since we don't want to kill you, we'll only use _one finger,'_ right? You used the entire arm on the opposite side of your proclaimed finger. Even though we can't smash your face in, not without a huge distraction and pulling out all our aces at once, this is still _our_ victory." He chuckled and let the smirk drop, it felt unnatural. "You're better than we were willing to give you credit for, but if fighting and healing are all you know how to do, than even Konohamaru would be a better Hokage, and he isn't even in the Academy yet. All you're thinking of is you. The Hokage has to think of the village first and foremost. None of the men who've ever bore the title would think of their sacrifice as a waste or regret even a minute of it. And that's a big part of the reason they were chosen as such."

He seemed to realize that he was ranting, and he chuckled a bit, sheepishly, and gave a small sigh. "But even so, you're probably the best chance we've got as a Hokage. Ero-sensei would make a good one, if we could ever get him to be serious, but there's a snowball's chance in hell of that happening and the only other candidate I can even think of would be Kakashi-sensei, but he'd probably be just as lazy in that position as he usually is as my Jounin-sensei." And then he looked down at the ground for a bit before looking back to her, ready to finally to be done talking, especially since this was going to _really_ hurt his pride. "So tell me, what can I do to make you come back with us?"

Tsunade was severely confused now. This kid was a veritable enigma! First he's some overconfident, albeit powerful, punk who has too much strength to be natural, then he's a strategic wiz with too much chakra to not be a bit of a threat in a fight given the aforementioned strength, then he's some philosopher, then he's a Nawaki clone (which hurt _sooo_ much), and now he's prostrating himself like this and... And... _'And he has too much of a point for me not to at least give them a small chance.'_ She thought ruefully, with a sigh.

She gave it bit of though before answering him, briefly considering asking him to complete the Rasengan in a week. She discarded that thought quickly, as she had seen how close to mastering it he was. Then she hit upon a gem of an idea. "How far along are you in your elemental reconstitution training?" She asked, and had a mild amount of satisfaction over his confusion. "Oh? So, my teammate hasn't even trained you in that yet? I thought he would have since you were saying you had some elemental jutsu and those are his specialty, outside of espionage."

"What the? Elemental what now?" Was his not quite eloquent response. Turning to the Toad Sage of Myobokuzan, Naruto yelled. "Oi, Ero-sensei, what the hell is this reconstitution business?"

Tsunade was very amused by by the argument that seemed to be brewing there, before getting her head back in the game. "Wait, you mean you don't even know what it is?" She was honestly a little more than surprised by that, he'd seemed so confident in his boast of an elemental jutsu repertoire. Surely he would have at least known he could make his own and make them seal-less if he mastered it, right? Any Chunin..."What rank are you?"

Jiraiya went to make a shushing motion, which Tsunade took note of, but Naruto wasn't paying attention to him any more. "I'm a Genin, just graduated about... Eight? Yeah, about eight months ago. Would be a Chunin if that snake-fuck Orochimaru hadn't killed the Old Man and made it so no one can be promoted till the new Hokage is instated."

Tsunade instantly turned on Jiraiya, giving him a look full of promises of pain. "You taught a fresh Genin a technique like the Rasengan? What the hell were you thinking you-"

* * *

Hours later, after a full explanation- and on Jiraiya's part, a large amount of blunt force trauma- Tsunade looked to be in a much better mood. "Okay, so as I was saying, I'm gonna make a bet with you. Win it and I'm the Godaime. Lose and you'll have to watch me and Shizune walk away with every ryou you had on you when it is determined you'd lost. Deal?" She proposed, grinning. He gave her a nod, silent and serious. "You've got two weeks, and only two weeks, from right this second to master the first step of the elemental reconstitution training as _I_ define it." She pulled out a strip of paper from... Somewhere, Naruto wasn't sure exactly where, and handed it to him. "Before you start though, you'll have to find out what your elemental affinity first. Channel your chakra into that and it'll do one of five things, ignite, become moist, crumble into dust. crinkle up into a ball or be cut as if by a blade."

Naruto nodded and did as instructed, with an interesting result by everyone who watched. It started of somewhat small, a tear near the center of the top half of the strip. But it didn't stop there, it built slowly, the first tear widening and more tears appearing until the strip was ripped to a dozen tiny pieces which then crumpled into even tinier balls which promptly took to moistening enough to leave wet spots on the ground, looking for all the world like a group of spit balls.

Tsunade looked at the spit balls that weren't spit balls that were the only indication of the slips former existence, then to Naruto, and then back down again. She sighed in exasperation. "_Great,"_ She thought, marginally put out by this turn of events. _"He's one of those types that are as much of a bitch to train as they are to kill once they do get trained." _

She turned to Jiraiya and said straight to his face. "You know, somehow, this is all your fault." She then turned back to Naruto."Okay so you have three elemental affinities; wind, lightning and water. Wind is your strongest, seeing as it manifested itself first, lightning is, contradictorily since it's weak to wind and thus not easy to learn for most who have wind as an affinity, your next strongest affinity. Water is your weakest. We'll focus on making your strong points even stronger and start with your wind affinity." She motioned for him to follow as she turned to walk away, which Naruto did.

She lead him and, by proxy, Jiraiya and Shizune, to a somewhat forested area somewhat near the town, and more importantly, their hotel.

"Right then, you brat, the first step in the wind branch of this training is to cut up a leaf in a way that is similar to how your piece of paper got cut to ribbons. Most ninja only go for cutting it in half, and then move on to adding power, which I define as the third step."

She then pointed him towards a tree. "Get cracking, brat. This step alone has been known to take four months on average, and a month at the least. If you want to get this done in two weeks, you've got to work like you've never worked before." She grinned, knowing that while it was theoretically possible for a human to get this step down that quickly, it would take a Nara's intellect, a Hyuuga's insight and Maito Guy's determination and stamina to do it. So far as Tsunade'd seen, he only had the latter and neither of the others.

Naruto grinned at her and made a hand seal that she had thought she wouldn't see. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." He intoned. She was utterly shocked when the smoke cleared from her vision and she saw an amount of Naruto's that had to be in excess of two-hundred, all making for this or that tree. And her chakra sense told her, now that she was bothering to actively pay attention to it for the purposes of finding out why he thought this was a good idea, that they all had about the chakra reserves of a fairly experienced Chunin.

"We'll get this done in your time limit, Tsunade-san, and when we do... Well we just hope you're one to honor a bet made amongst comrades." One of them told told her as he climbed up a tree to collect a leaf.

Tsunade realized at about that moment that she had likely made a large miscalculation about the amount of time he'd need for this. With what intellect he had and how much insight he would get from his clones as well, as the determination and stamina that he'd already shown her, it was likely that he'd actually be able to completely master the training within the time-frame she'd specified. Easily even, if he'd nearly mastered the Rasengan which was one of the most chakra control intensive jutsu in existence, in less than a month. This didn't require even half so much control, just knowing how you were supposed to manipulate the chakra.

* * *

It was the second day of his wind elemental training and Naruto- well one of the clones actually, not that such a fact really mattered when it came to Kage Bunshin as they were all essentially the same person- was trying to think of a way to even cut the leaf once in the first place, much like all the others. 'W_ell, how do blacksmiths make a cutting edge?'_ Was that particular clones first thought, before slowly remembering something he'd heard from Kanaro. '_They grind it, right? Two surfaces, mostly flat, grinding against each other. Only they have to worry about material strength and blade thickness. Man, talking to Kanaro-san when I'm bored sure can come up with some nice advantages when I'm training later.'_ And with that thought the clone began his work, the process having taken all of three minutes. With the somewhat vague idea of grinding the chakra flow coming from his hands against one another in mind, it still took that clone six and a half hours to figure out how to form a precision cut in the leaves rather than a chewed up mess that looked like someone had just taken a hack saw to it.

The clone then looked up gleefully at the others, presumably including the real Naruto, and called out to them. "Oi, guys, we got the secret to making the cuts, here, let us dispel, then we can all work on adding to the cuts!"

* * *

That clones breakthrough, inspired as it was, was still only a moderate jump in the process. They could form a cut now. They still had to work out the bugs of adding more cuts, a bit of spatial reconstruction as well as elemental reconstitution. They also needed to work on the speed at which they did so, to make it battle ready (i.e. making sure he was capable of using chakra flow to increase the combat ability of his kunai and shuriken and that he could use what elemental jutsu he had that were below B-rank seallessly) and master it as Tsunade had demanded and _that_ took him the rest of his given two weeks, as did his full mastering of the Rasengan. Clones were damn useful for chakra control training like that.

And these two acts combined had given Naruto an idea, a terrible, awful idea. One that would have to wait, since his... Venom called it 'spider-sense' because it was the ability of man who had spider-like abilities and that was how the man had referred to it. Weird. Anyway, his spider-sense was telling him that something was about to crash into him. He back flipped over whatever it was and took a ready stance. Jiraiya, sprawled out on the floor, panting and sweating like Naruto had never seen him and looking like death after it had been warmed up four times and refrozen three times.

'_What could have done this to him Venom? All our sparring sessions and he never looks even vaguely taxed, and all of a sudden he's coming through here looking like he just fought Sanshouo no Hanzo again, all by himself!' _Naruto though to the symbiote, hoping that it had an explanation.

'_Aside from exhaussstion or sssome sssort of dissseassse, neither of which ssseem likely, I would sssay poissson.'_ Came his reply, after a moment or so of thought. '_And the only perssson near to him who could ssslip him one, given hisss high ssskill level, would be_ _Tsssunade.'_ The voice in Naruto's head continued.

Naruto, not really so surprised that the old lush would renege on their deal, went to help the man to his feet and ran to get him some water before he could say anything. Upon his return the old pervert was sitting on the ground again, looking just as exhausted as before. Giving Jiraiya the water he'd retrieved for him, Naruto was about to sit by his side and ask what had prompted Tsunade's betrayal when he heard a knock at the door.

"Go get that, would you brat? I would but I'm not in any condition to." Jiraiya said, and Naruto complied, mostly because what Jiraiya had said was true.

After going over to and opening the door, about to give a polite greeting to whomever was on the other side, Naruto came up short when Shizune pushed past him and rushed over to Jiraiya.

Naruto reacted immediately and without thought. Shizune, as the apprentice of the woman who had poisoned the old toad summoner, was obviously trying to go in for the kill now. He allowed Venom to encompass him in the suit that he'd spent the rough two months since the Sandaime's death training in his off time to get used to as he drew a kunai and flowed his wind natured chakra through it, a task made moderately difficult by the fact that the kunai wasn't made of chakra conductive metal and therefore was minutely resisting his efforts. He moved, almost too fast for Jiraiya to catch in his debilitated state, and had the kunai to her throat in an instant.

For Shizune's part, it actually _was _to fast to keep up with. One moment she had been rushing forward to tell Jiraiya that Tsunade had gone off to meet with Orochimaru, the next she had a kunai being held to her throat by a man in all black, heavy looking- vaguely ANBU-esque as well- armor and a skintight suit of some sort. And he had teeth like daggers and a tongue like a snake.

"**Stay away from him, answer all our questions, and we may just let you live.**" Naruto said, injecting all the killing intent and malice he could into his voice, which sounded really... Evil as it was anyway.

Shizune trembled a bit, scared of the monstrous being who had her so clearly beaten from a physical standpoint, before Jiraiya interrupted.

"Naruto? What the hell? You've never done _that_ before! And what's with the spider motif on your back?" He exclaimed, very much surprised and his priorities a little wacky in his slight delirium.

"**Not now, Ero-sensei, we've got a possible traitor to Konoha to interrogate.**" Naruto rebutted, keeping a firm hand on his kunai and keeping the kunai itself on Shizune's neck, the wind chakra coating it only _just_ nicking her neck.

Shizune gulped as she considered her situation, Naruto was clearly highly suspicious of her, which she could only see as reasonable. After all, the only people who he knew of in the area who could reduce Jiraiya to the state she could she him in were Tsunade and Orochimaru, and with Jiraiya having spent all last night drinking with Tsunade...

Shizune did a brief review of her options, as she saw them. The first being to try to reason with him, which had fifty-fifty odds of working, seeing as he might view it as her resisting his interrogations. The second was to actually resist and attempt to get away, an unlikely scenario to succeed in, given how fast he had shown he was. Or number three, surrender and answer all his questions, after which he might kill her anyway just to be certain.

This was the point, however, where Jiraiya intervened.

"Whoa, brat, let up on the 'hardened shinobi' shtick. She's in the clear, wasn't even in the same area as Tsunade and me all night, and Tsunade only slipped me whatever drug she slipped me about five minutes back." He said, seeming more annoyed then frightened.

Naruto frowned, unintentionally making his already decidedly terrifying visage even more dreadful, before having venom retract into a less noticeable form, a skintight body suit similar to that of the standard ANBU uniform. He removed the knife from Shizune's throat and moved back, allowing the medic to relax, and pocketed it.

* * *

Five minutes later, after having given Jiraiya some time to recover and Shizune the time to explain the situation with Tsunade and Orochimaru, Naruto Shizune and the aforementioned Toad Sennin were rushing to the meeting point. Upon their arrival however they were witness to Tsunade losing a taijutsu match to...

"Kabuto?" Naruto asked, a little confused but slowly coming to the realization that the man was a spy.

Kabuto himself seemed surprised and Orochimaru seemed downright stunned. Muttering to himself to quietly for Naruto to hear, the snake seemed to work himself into a frenzy before launching himself at Naruto. Thankfully for Naruto, who knew damn well that even a handicapped Sannin was too much for him currently based on just experience and raw power comparisons alone, Jiraiya intervened and took their fight to another area of the field.

Naruto sighed a bit in relief and turned to face Kabuto, seeing that he was still looking at Naruto and muttering to himself under his breath. "We hadn't pegged you for a traitor, but then We guess that's what you were trying to achieve in the first place." Naruto said to Kabuto before sighing and gave a halfhearted shrug. He then activated his curse seal at level one and allowed Venom to encapsulate his head once more in a psychotically grinning mask. **"Whatever, let's do this, traitor. We've got better things to do with my time then pussyfoot around with a asshat like you."**

Kabuto seemed a bit taken aback by the insults, and with the power Naruto was radiating, but shook it off and took up a taijutsu stance. Naruto grinned and launched himself at the traitorous iryo-nin, beginning a flurry of close quarters combat that Naruto found himself losing in.

_"Kabuto's obviously highly skilled,"_ Naruto thought to himself as he launched a snap kick at the Iryo-nin's exposed back as he was falling that, if it were to connect would likely break the man's spine near the neck, only for him to contort in mid air, lay a hand on Naruto's thigh and push off with a victorious smirk on his face. _"I'll need to take this to the next level, Kyuubi's chakra, if I want to gain the speed I'm gonna need to finish him."_

_"Hossst."_ Came the sibilant hissing voice of Venom from the echoing depths of Naruto's mind._ "The betrayer attempted to forccce a blade of chakra into you with hisss hand jussst now. It collasssped into free floating chakra and wasss absssorbed when it came into contact with the chakra coursssing through your body jussst below the ssskin."_

Naruto frowned at that... If he could do that and in fact didn't even realize he was doing it... the Why did Neji's Jyuuken work in the Chuunin Exam Finals? Maybe fully bonding with Venom had activated some sort of kekkei genkai? He'd have to see if Tsunade or someone else could check and see for him.

But before that, Kabuto was closing in again, still with that stupid smirk on his face. Naruto shifted his center of balance and allowed the weight of his kick to spin him off to the left while bringing his torso parallel to the ground and hopping with his other foot. This act allowed him to corkscrew himself into the air above Kabuto as he over-committed to his attack.

As he came down Naruto prepared his strongest C-rank wind release ninjutsu- a Futon: Daitoppa no Jutsu that had within it a number of dangerous cutting blades- seallessly as he created a clone to use his only fire element technique- a very much underpowered (due to his wind element he now knew) Katon: Gokkakyu no Jutsu- in a combination jutsu.

As he released his techniques though, he saw Shizune trying to run up behind his target, something he hadn't been expecting. But clearly, Kabuto had at least been expecting Naruto to use some sort of ranged technique, because he dodged Naruto's combination technique leaving a surprised Shizune to take it's full brunt... were it not for Naruto using some of the Kyuubi's chakra to get there in time and take the shot for her.

For her part Shizune just looked at him in shock, utterly shocked that he had both the skill to perform such an attack, and the willingness to protect a veritable stranger such as her.

Kabuto, however, found Naruto's selflessness to be an amusing weakness and chuckle insultingly at him as he charged him from his blind spot.

This was part of Naruto's- admittedly hastily put together- plan, though. Naruto had his spider-sense, and the Kyuubi's chakra had protected him from the fire-storm he'd made. Naruto knew where Kabuto was, almost knew what he was going to do, and was nowhere near as damaged as Kabuto was expecting.

As Kabuto made a slash at Naruto's seemingly exposed back, Naruto bent backwards till his torso was parallel to the ground and grabbed Kabuto's attacking wrist and twisted it till it broke. He then flipped his legs up while tucking them in before uncoiling them with all his strength, nearly ripping Kabuto's arm from it's socket, before he let go and launched the traitor into a rock on the far side of the room.

Shizune, gasped, drawing Naruto's attention to her. Her eyes were wide and she was covering her mouth with her hand. Naruto followed her gaze and saw something that gave him a grim determination to do something incredibly stupid. Orochimaru was about to stab Tsunade through the chest with a sword that was protruding from his mouth.

Requesting the chakra of his demon again, Naruto was encapsulated in a glowing chakra shroud once more, and vanished in a blur of red as his second level curse seal activated and he moved to fast for even Jiraiya who was chasing after Orochimaru to see. Naruto didn't really think about what he was doing, just reacted on gut instinct and years of methodical indoctrination by Konoha, to protect the woman who was- in his mind at least- the leader of the village, it's pillar of insurmountable strength.

He attempted his latest jutsu, and through sheer instinct used it with his somewhat fledgling elemental reconstitution abilities. The combination of three very different, but also very potent chakra sources- his own, the Kyuubi's, and the strange chakra that he almost wouldn't feel were it not coursing through him- being molded into a sharp cutting wind might have been enough to block Orochimaru's blade. If Naruto hadn't gotten overconfident and actually paid attention to the fact that Orochimaru hadn't quite lost track of him. Naruto was stabbed through the lung for his trouble.

As he went through the process of blacking out, Naruto saw Tsunade stand up. He would have grinned at the determination he saw in her eyes, had he the energy to move.

* * *

When he woke again, Naruto was lying in a room he recognized as the one he and Jiraiya had paid for in their hotel, his chest ached a bit and he thanked both the Yondaime and Venom for his advanced healing. He had learned from the alien that he could direct the Kyuubi's chakra somewhat not long before they found Tsunade and had a feeling that he'd helped out Naruto with his lethal injury.

He sat up and gave a direct thank you to Venom, getting a feeling of gratitude back along their mental connection, something that Naruto had no idea was even possible. It was at this moment that Tsunade walked in, stopping and staring at Naruto for a moment before getting bumped into by Jiraiya who had been following her. She was frozen for a second as Jiraiya began to question her sudden stop before he too grew silent as he noticed Naruto, who was now getting out of the bed he'd been put in. A task made more arduous then it should have been since it seemed his blood had soaked into the bandages around his chest and gut which had then adhered to the bed.

Tsunade finally seemed to snap out of her daze and rushed over and began to run a what Naruto assumed was a diagnostic jutsu of some sort over him. She frowned for some reason, and began again only for the frown to deepen. "Dammit, it's still happening." She ground out before looking at him sharply. "You, tell me how you're doing this. Now."

Naruto frowned at her and tried to think of what she could mean. When he couldn't, Naruto replied. "We have no idea, what you mean, we're not doing anything, breathing aside."

"Then how the hell are you absorbing my medical chakra?" She bit out, startling Naruto at her vehemence. "When I tried to run a diagnostic on you after we'd run off Orochimaru I couldn't get a read on you because you were absorbing the technique's chakra! I thought maybe it was some sort of defense that the seal or your Bijuu gave you, or maybe some sort of thing that happened when you were unconscious, but you're still doing it and I can't check if you're healthy enough to move or not!"

Naruto was shocked... He could absorb chakra now? Hadn't Venom mentioned something like that in the fight against Kabuto? He hadn't felt his chakra increase, but that might just have been because medical jutsu used comparatively less chakra and reserves were so huge that he couldn't feel the relatively miniscule increase? He gave it some thought and then asked for a kunai.

"Why?" Was Tsunade's somewhat suspicious reply. "What do you need it for?"

"Well, I've gotten the wind reconstitution done, at the first level at least. I want to see if the absorption works on other types of chakra, or just medical chakra... It might be some sort of bloodline? I don't know how I'm doing it but that's one potential explanation." Tsunade seemed reluctant to do so, but Naruto's reason was fairly sound for an active combat shinobi.

Naruto took the kunai with a somber nod. This absorption ability could be an incredible if he could learn to deactivate it, or a terrible curse if he couldn't, preventing any Iryo-nin from healing him if his regeneration- for whatever reason- wasn't enough. He channeled his wind chakra down the length of the blade and extended it's range by about eighteen centimeters. He then slowly moved it down across his arm. It broke the skin, causing some bleeding, but when he could feel it was only a minor scratch. He sighed and handed the kunai back.

He laid back in the bed and thought about a way to try and turn off the absorption. He asked Venom. _'Well, hossst, it isss your energy yesss? You have been training to control it for yearsss. Try to limit or ssstop the flow of it beneattth your ssskin. It may work or... It may not, it isssn't like I'm an exxxpert on chakra.' _Naruto gave a nod and yet more thanks, before returning his attention to his surroundings.

"I've got an idea." He stated confidently, interrupting some sort of argument between Tsunade and Jiraiya. "I was feeling out my chakra in more detail... There's currently a fair amount flowing just under my skin over my entire body." That stopped them, and they waited while Naruto tried to give words to the theory he'd just come up with and the solution Venom had provided. "I think it's density is... Breaking up chakra that is less dense than my own and carrying it away into my coils. But with medical chakra there's only a little for me to absorb. So little I didn't even notice when I absorbed Kabtuo's Chakra no Mesu or your diagnosis technique." They all nodded, a bit at a loss.

"But," Naruto continued. "If I can learn to stop the flow of chakra under the skin and force it all into my coils, I could- feasibly- stop the absorption in everywhere but my coils themselves, thus allowing an Iryo-nin to examine anywhere but there, right?" And they nodded. It was a well thought out hypothesis, and if it worked then he'd be mostly normal since damage to the coils was more or less impossible to heal even for Tsunade, and people who took that sort of damage usually died soon after anyway.

They left for Konoha the next day, and Naruto was looking forward to training his wind element further, after he got his absorption under control. But when he got back... Everything would change.

End~

* * *

Alright, chapter four is up. Things are moving along and I'm not gonna spoil exactly _how_ Naruto's bloodline came about, but suffice it to say that the Namikaze genes interacted with the Uzumaki 'powerful chakra' to create it.

Cookies to those who guess what's gonna be the biggest change when they get to Konoha.

Kuta, out!


End file.
